Finite element analysis of rubber mounts under shock loading

Abstract

The responses of two rubber mounts subjected to shock loading were studied using the finite element method. The mounts consist of steel plates which are bonded to blocks of polyisoprene and silicone rubber. The mounts were subjected to two half-sine wave acceleration pulses of maximum amplitudes of 500g and 1000g, applied to the bottom plates of the mounts. A procedure for transforming the complex modulus of the rubber from the frequency domain to the time domain relaxation modulus using the Fourier transform analysis and Prony series is presented. The predicted non-dimensionalised responses, which are presented in the time and frequency domains, show that the silicone rubber mount had better damping characteristics in terms of reducing the amplitude of the high frequency content of the input shock spectra.