Analysis of the cord layer's influence on the air spring's lateral stiffness

Stiffness is one of the most important factors to vibration isolation system. Paper established a finite element model of the air spring, used nonlinear finite element method to analysis the rectangular shape air spring's stiffness. By considering the nonlinearity of the rubber-cord composite material, the geometric nonlinear process caused by large deformation and the nonlinear contact between the rigid base plate and the flexible capsule, paper calculated and plotted the characteristic curve of air springs, and analyzed the influence of cord angle, cord spacing and number of cord layers on the air spring's lateral stiffness characteristics. The finite element method results are consistent with the test results, which proved the method is feasible.