Dynamic Simulation under Intermediate Strain Rates of Mechanical Components Made of an Elastomeric Matrix and a Metal Reinforcement

This work studies the dynamic simulation of mechanical components under intermediate strain rates. The study is centered on components composed of an elastomeric material and a metal reinforcement. Two different constitutive models were proposed to simulate the elastomeric material dynamic behavior. The proposed models were the Maxwell and the Cowper & Symonds models. For the components' simulation, the material characteristics were obtained through a multivariable identification process based on the experimental data acquired from a dynamic material analysis (DMA). For the generalized Maxwell model the system frequency response was analyzed, and for the Cowper & Symonds model a finite element analysis was performed. It was found that the Cowper & Symonds model implementation by finite element analysis allows a good fit of the material properties but has a high computational cost. On the other hand, the Maxwell model implementation by frequency representation consists on a reduced order model with low computational cost to perform the simulation of simple mechanical components.