Compression of Bonded Rubber Blocks

Many practical rubber component designs involve the compression of rubber blocks bonded to rigid metal plates. The rigorous analysis of such components is very difficult. However, a simple approximate method developed by Gent gives reasonably satisfactory predictions for stiffness and stress distribution provided deformations are kept small. Gent's “pressure” method is briefly reviewed for the classical cases of a long strip and a cylindrical disk. The method is then applied to more complex cases of a rectangular block and an annulus. The usual “incompressibility” assumption is relaxed to “near incompressibility” to yield more accurate solutions. Predictions have been verified using linear finite element analysis.