Experimental study on mechanical property degradation of thermal aging laminated rubber bearing

Abstract

Laminated Rubber Bearing (LRB) plays a significant role in recent bridge-supporting systems and its characteristics are mainly contributed by their nonlinear properties. However, LRB performance deteriorates during aging. To better understand the aging phenomenon and its influence on mechanical properties, several circular LRBs of different sizes were introduced. Firstly, thermal aging tests were carried out, and then pseudo-static tests were carried out to study the influence of aging on modulus, friction coefficient, and frictional sliding. The results show that the compression modulus and shear modulus are nonlinear with the aging time. The shape factor also affects mechanical properties. When the shape factor is larger, the effect of aging degradation on mechanical properties is alleviated. The frictional coefficients at the surfaces of testing LRBs get increased with the thermal aging period, which gets stable after 10-year aging. The initial friction-sliding displacements are increasing with the increase of thermal aging period.

Keywords

• Laminated rubber bearing
• Thermal aging
• Mechanical property
• Property degradation
• Frictional coefficient
• Friction-sliding