An Energy‐Dissipation‐Based Method for Fatigue Life Prediction of Nitrile Rubber

The fatigue durability of nitrile rubber determines the safe operation of lightweight equipment. In this paper, an energy‐dissipation‐based fatigue life assessment model for nitrile rubber through the quantitative thermographic methodology is presented. The surface temperature field of a nitrile rubber specimen under different cyclic loadings is measured by the infrared thermal imager, and its energy dissipation behavior is quantitatively characterized. Moreover, the simulated strain field of nitrile rubber under monotonic tensile loading is also compared with the tested results. Then, the failure energy tolerance is considered as the damage parameter to build the mapping relationship with the maximum engineering strain and the asymptotic temperature rise. Based on the energy dissipation mechanism, the zero‐dimensional fatigue life estimation model of nitrile rubber is constructed. The predicted lifespan in cycles at different strain levels agrees well with the experimental data, which is located within the double error band. Compared with the traditional ε – N approach, this suggested method has an advantage in terms of accuracy.