The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of methods used to characterize the elastic behavior of rubber for use in Finite Element Analysis (FEA). A sample of elastic strain energy density functions used to characterize rubber is given, along with the tests required to characterize rubber according to these functions. The use of synthetic test data as an alternative to full physical testing is discussed, and highlighted by a case study. The paper closes with a discussion on potential errors associated with FEA of rubber components.

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SUMMARYAnalysis of multi-layer composite laminates using three-dimensional finite element models often results in high computational cost. This communication reports a three-dimensional super-element scheme which can reduce the computational cost.

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