Life prediction of cord/rubber laminates under multiaxial fatigue

In this paper, the fatigue performance of cord/rubber laminates is investigated under multiaxial loadings provided by pulley/bending fatigue tests. Life predictions are performed based on the crack growth approach and the crack nucleation approach. The crack growth approach based on rubber crack growth characteristics overpredicts the fatigue life because the interfacial adhesion degradation is neglected. In the crack nucleation approach, a self-designed cord/rubber adhesion fatigue test is developed, and the interfacial fatigue performance is characterized with S-N curves for various predictors. Combining with the global–local analysis of cord/rubber laminates, the fatigue lives with respect to pulley diameter are determined for different predictors and compared to the test results. The results show that using the prediction models based on interfacial fatigue performance improves the life prediction of cord/rubber laminates, and the most satisfying prediction in terms of crack initiation plane and fatigue life is obtained by using cracking energy density as the predictor.