Behaviour of lead-rubber bearings

Experimental work undertaken to investigate the behaviour of lead-rubber bearings under compression and a combination of compression and shear or rotation has been reported on elsewhere. However, it is difficult to determine the state of stress within the bearings in terms of the applied forces and the interaction between the lead plug and the steel shims and elastomeric layers. Iri order to supply some of the missing information about the stress-strain state within the bearings, an analytical study using the finite element method was carried out. The available experimental results were used to validate the model and although agreement was not as good as expected (on account of difficulties in modelling the lead plug), the analyses did provide some information about the state of the stress within the bearing.