A Double Cantilever Sandwich Beam Method for Evaluating Dynamic Characteristics of Rubber Materials

A double cantilever sandwich-beam method is proposed for the evaluation of the frequency dependence of the dynamic elastic modulus and material loss factor of rubber materials. The flexural vibration of a double cantilever sandwich-beam specimen with an inserted rubber layer was studied using a finite element simulation in combination with a sine-sweep test. Effects of the rubber layer length on the dynamic characteristics were also investigated such that reliable values were measured when the length of the inserted rubber layer was larger than or equal to 50% of the effective specimen length. The values were compared with those obtained by dynamic mechanical analysis and a simple resonant test. The relationships of the dynamic characteristics of rubber materials with frequency could be determined using the least squares estimation method.