DEVELOPMENT OF LABORATORY TESTING APPARATUS AND FATIGUE ANALYSIS FOR TRACKED VEHICLE RUBBER BACKER PADS

Daniel Kujawski*, Daren DiStefano*, William Bradford**

*Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI **US Army RDE Command (RDECOM), Warren, MI
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DISCLAIMER: Reference herein to any specific commercial company,

product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the Department of the Army (DoA). The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the DoA, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

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WD 24 Road Pad Elastomer Research

Summary of WD: This research is aimed to develop an experimental methodology to characterize the degradation of tank rubber pads under service loading condition. The methodology is based on full scale testing of tank rubber pads under controlled loading condition in laboratory setting. The laboratory test results would be compared with pads run at the Yuma Proving Ground.

Deliverables: Laboratory test methodology for screening rubber compounds to increase fatigue life and mileage Backer pad damage prediction model of load and heat interaction on rubber fatigue degradation Impact This work supports the efforts of TARDEC to improve the reliability and fatigue performance of tank rubber pads (backers). Reduce cost of testing; $1 million for 2000 proving ground miles

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Introduction (Problem Definition)

Large stresses imposed on elastomeric components cause them to be the life limiting factor of the track system Improvements of these components has a significant impact on life cycle costs, logistics, field support and Vehicle/War Fighter effectiveness
Ground pad

Typical field test costs over $1,000,000.00

Backer pads
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Motivation
TARDECs Elastomer Improvement Program (EIP) develops components with a three phase process
1) Identify Understand failure modes 2) Optimize Computer simulation (FEA) Customized test which mimics failure modes Optimize component (Material selection/design) 3) Validate Full scale testing Modify Requirements and Specifications
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Solution
The Fatigue and Fracture Lab of Western Michigan University has partnered with TARDECs EIP lab to develop a customized test for an Abrams T-158LL RWBP
PART I: The conception of testing apparatus along with its implementation will be outlined
PART II: A new methodology used to correlate the dependence of crack growth rate for strain crystallizing natural rubber in terms of tearing energy will be discussed
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Part 1: Testing Apparatus

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Assembly Components

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LabVIEW Interface

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Testing Procedures

Backer pad positioned under wheel Statically loaded Engage motor Initiate LabVIEW interface Remove rubber from carriage and inspect every 100 miles or as desired

14-16 AUG 2012

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Effects of Heating
Without heat addition With heat addition

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Summary
Cost and time efficient means of screening elastomer components are essential
The testing apparatus described here will be able to complete accurate tests of the rubber components in a fraction of the time and cost of field testing Currently over 1,000 miles of testing have been performed

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Future Works
In order to more accurately simulate field conditions, and in order to accelerate testing time, several modifications are being considered for the testing apparatus
In the field the elastomer components are in contact with abrasive substrates such as dirt or gravel For this reason the rubber tank wheel may be replaced with a rough metal wheel in order to simulate the abrasiveness of field operation Also, elastomer components heat up during field testing usually around 250 F In order to simulate this flexible heater systems are being considered that could heat the rubber to a temperature likely experienced in the field
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Part 2: Fatigue Analysis Using Tearing Energy

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Lindley Approach

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Traditional Approach
for Correlating R-ratio Effects
Determine the power law region and obtain the material constants (rc ,Tc, and F) from the R=0 curve

For the other curves determine the power law slope F from the power law region

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Equivalent Tearing Energy Method

(Mars-Fatemi Method)

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Fatigue Crack Growth

Determination of Threshold Region
1.E-06

da/dN (mm/cycle)

1.E-07

1.E-08 0.01

0.1

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Max Tearing Energy (kJ/m^2)

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Equivalent Tearing Energy

Mars Fatemi Method Without Threshold Modified Method With Threshold

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Collapsing Data
Without Threshold With Threshold

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Error of da/dN Prediction

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Summary
It is essential to have a means of quickly screening material properties A deeper understanding of material behavior at slow crack growth rates is desirable because this area accounts for the majority of the life of the component The newly proposed model for approximating the crack growth rate vs. tearing energy relationship could provide a means for quickly comparing fatigue properties of rubber formulas

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Questions

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