Analysis of Fiber Reinforced Elastomeric Bearings

Using multilayer springs of rubber and steel is a "state of the art" technique in many areas of application. To acchieve the requested combination of horizontal and vertical stiffness it is necessary to influence the shape factor using reinforcement layers. Generally these reinforcement layers consist of steel plates which have serveral disadvantages and limitations. The development of fiber reinforced elastomeric bearings allows for a substitution of the steel plates by synthetic fabrics with much the same basic mechanical properties. However essential differences and advantages remain on the mechanical and fabrication side. The formulas which describe the mechanical behavior that are given in literature and design codes only give a rough approximation of the bearing behavior, specially for fiber reinforced bearings. They do not toake into account effects such as nonlinearity on the material and geomatrical side, and do nicht discribe the damping behavior. A deeper knowledge about the mechanical mechanisms of these bearings has to be attained, which is the aim of this project. The given formulas will be evaluated and extended to meet a more realistic description of the bearing behavior.