Fatigue Damage Analysis of an Elastomeric Tank Track Component

Abstract: The backerpad on the Abrams tank track system is an elastomeric cushion that protects the track and has direct contact with the tank’s wheels. The backerpad’s service life is limited by harsh operating conditions, and system designers are challenged to extend that limit. Accordingly, an analysis is demonstrated here of an experimental backerpad’s fatigue performance under the action of a tank roadwheel epeatedly rolling over the pad. First, the elastomer is characterized via tests that define its fatigue behavior. Next, the multiaxial, variable amplitude duty cycle of the pad through a representative rollover event is computed in ABAQUS/Explicit. Finally, the material characterization and duty cycle are analyzed via the fe-safe/Rubber fatigue life solver to estimate damage accumulation in each finite element of the model. The calculation identifies the location and number of duty cycle repeats associated with the first appearance of 1 mm cracks for the selected duty cycle, providing an example of how fatigue analysis may be applied to understand damage development in elastomeric components.