A Study on FEM Analysis and its Endurance Evaluation of an Oil-Damper Rubber Bush for a Railway Vehicle

The railroad bogie's components experience repeated loading during service. Especially, oil damper bush has been fatigue fractured on the plane between rubber and steel stem during service, and which results in inferior of performance of the bogie. In this study, in order to offer a proper maintenance method of the bush, bubber bush used for the oil damper was fatigue tested and its damage fraction during service was estimated. Also, FEM analysis on the bush was conducted. When 1400, 1200, and 1000kgf of repeated loads were applied to the oil damper bush, final damage fraction exhibited 63.7%, 50% and 40%. From the results of FEM analysis, deformation energy density was found to be at an applied load of 1400kgf and the location with maximum value coincided with the fractured location of the bush. Finally, it will be desirable to adopt the normalized damage fraction rather than absolute damage fraction in estimating remaining service lifetime of the bush.