THE TENSILE TESTS OF NATURAL RUBEER BEARINGS FOCUSED ON THE EFFECT OF THE STEEL FRANGE PLATES

Abstract

In this study, tensile tests for the Natural Rubber Bearings were performed to investigate the vertical and horizontal restoring force characteristics and the scale effect in small extensional region, as well as the influence of the thickness of the flange plate. From the results of tensile tests, the extensional stiffness was sensitive to the flange plate thickness and scale rule was effective at small extensional region. The deformation of the flange plate subjected to tensile load can be expressed by the simple theoretical equation. Consequently the behavior of rubber bearings under tensile load can be evaluated including the deformation of the flange plate.