Constants of Metal Rubber Material

Damping materials made of pressing wire, such as Metal Rubber (MR material), “metal-flex†, “spring cushion†etc. are used widely in vibration protection systems. They have high strength and damping, however they are non-linear and anisotropic. To use contemporary finite element software for calculation of vibration insulators made of wire damping material one should know constants of this material. Till this time this problem almost isn’t researched, there is only a few data in linear approximation. A Young modulus for pressure and bending, shear modulus, Poisson ratio, friction force for pressure and for shear, friction coefficient between wire material and steel plate are obtained for MR material made of stainless steel wire for different load directions by static experiment in the present research. An influence of deformation, relative density, wire diameter, pressing force, deformation in other direction on these constants is considered. Peculiarities of pressing wire material deformation process are discussed- a difference of Young modulus for pressure and bending, a stabilization of hysteretic loop for one direction during load in another direction, an energy dissipation coefficient for different load directions. Results of the present research not only allow calculation of vibration isolator made of MR material by finite element software, but give a method for research of other pressing wire damping materials.