Rate-Dependent Thermomechanical Coupling Hysteretic Model for Lead High-Damping Rubber Bearings at Low Temperatures

Abstract

The lead high-damping rubber (LHDR) bearing is one of the efficient rubber bearings with excellent energy-dissipation capacity. Similar to high-damping rubber (HDR) bearings and lead rubber (LR) bearings, the hysteretic behavior of LHDR bearings significantly changes at low temperatures due to the nonnegligible temperature dependence and heating effect. However, the complex heat-transfer mechanism in these bearings differs from that of HDR bearings or LR bearings owing to the interacted heating effect of the HDR laminate and the lead core. Additionally, the hysteretic behavior is affected by the loading rate. In this paper, a rate-dependent thermomechanical coupling hysteretic model was developed to illustrate the rate dependence and thermal mechanism in LHDR bearings. A thermomechanical model was proposed to explain the heating effect and heat transfer in HDR laminates, lead cores, and steel plates. A rate-dependent hysteretic model coupled with the thermal mechanism was then established to predict the hysteretic behavior of bearings. The hysteresis curves and temperature history were validated through the quasi-static cyclic loading with cooling intervals and real-time and pseudodynamic hybrid simulations. The temperature profile was predicted to directly depict the vertical temperature distribution of LHDR bearings. The proposed model achieved improved accuracy in the hysteresis curves and temperature history compared with the existing model.