Creep prediction with temperature effect and experimental verification of rubber suspension components used in rail vehicles

Rubber anti-vibration components are widely used in rail vehicles as either a primary or a secondary suspension system with long-term service. An essential requirement is to limit the deflections of suspension components not to exceed their structural limitation due to creep in order to avoid early failure over its service life. Temperature is the main environmental factor to account for creep. Traditional hyperelastic approach can only be used for mechanical loading analysis without reference to time. In this article, the primary creep of rubber structures is obtained by introducing time as an additional variable into hyperelastic models. A deviation function from the primary creep due to temperature change is established and also integrated into the proposed model so that the real creep values can be obtained at specified time. The proposed approach has been validated experimentally using a Vee mount, a Metacone component and a Circular mount. It has been shown that real creep value due to temperature change can be obtained from this approach. It is also revealed that the creep due to temperature change is mainly attributed to alternation of the rubber elastic parameters. It is suggested that this approach can be used in a design stage for similar polymer applications.