Failure analysis and fatigue life prediction are important steps in the design procedure of industrial products to assure the safety and reliability of their components. A new methodology to predict the fatigue life of a rubber mount based on the continuum damage mechanics is proposed in this study. The hyperelastic constitutive model of the natural rubber material in the mount was fitted using the three parameter Mooney-Rivlin model. A damage variable was introduced and the evolution function of cumulative damage in the rubber material was derived. The parameters in the damage function were acquired based on uniaxial tensile tests and fatigue life tests of the natural rubber specimens. Then the finite element analysis (FEA) models of the rubber mount for loads in the X and Y directions were established and the strain contours and the maximum principal strains of the rubber mount under various loads were calculated. The maximum principal strain was used as the fatigue parameter, which was substituted into the natural rubber’s fatigue life damage function to predict the fatigue life of the rubber mount. Finally, the fatigue lives of the rubber mount under various loads were measured on a fatigue test rig to validate the accuracy of the fatigue life prediction method. The test results indicated that the fatigue lives predicted agreed fairly well with the test results and the fatigue prediction method should be applicable to both rubber and other types of components.

失效分析和疲劳寿命预测是工业产品设计过程中的重要步骤，以确保其组件的安全性和可靠性。在这项研究中，提出了一种基于连续损伤力学预测橡胶支座疲劳寿命的新方法。使用三参数Mooney-Rivlin模型拟合了底座中天然橡胶材料的超弹性本构模型。引入损伤变量，并推导了橡胶材料中累积损伤的演变函数。基于天然橡胶样品的单轴拉伸试验和疲劳寿命试验，获得了损伤函数中的参数。然后建立了橡胶支座在X和Y方向上的载荷的有限元分析（FEA）模型，并计算了在不同载荷下橡胶支座的应变轮廓和最大主应变。将最大主应变用作疲劳参数，将其替换为天然橡胶的疲劳寿命破坏函数，以预测橡胶支座的疲劳寿命。最后，在疲劳试验台上测量了橡胶支座在各种载荷下的疲劳寿命，以验证疲劳寿命预测方法的准确性。试验结果表明，预测的疲劳寿命与试验结果吻合得很好，疲劳预测方法应适用于橡胶和其他类型的部件。