A novel method for obtaining fatigue parameters of rubber materials considering the crack path deviation

Abstract

This study evaluates the formula for calculating the energy release rate of pure shear specimens through theoretical analysis and finite element simulations, revealing its applicability only to crack without path deviation. The classical method based on this formula may not be suitable for obtaining the fatigue parameters of rubber when crack path deviates during fatigue crack growth (FCG) experiments. Thus, a novel method is proposed that uses the J-integral to calculate the energy release rate at different positions along the fatigue crack path. This method can accurately obtain fatigue parameters considering the influence of crack path deviation. In addition, the fatigue parameters from both the classical and novel methods in the FCG experiment were used to predict the rubber’s lifetime in tensile fatigue tests. It was found that the predicted lifetime from the novel method was closer to the experimental result, suggesting that the fatigue parameters derived from this method can accurately characterize the fatigue performance of rubber, even when the crack path deviates.