Fatigue Life Analysis of Solid Elastomer-Like Polyurethanes

The material behaviour of polymeric materials under cyclic fatigue loads is complex and forms a vast field of research activities. Elastomer-like polyurethane materials form an excellent fit for cyclically loaded system components in many cases. The present work aims to quantify fatigue crack growth (FCG) in a high-performance, commercially available hydrolysis-resistant thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). This TPU material is often used in water or oil hydraulics and applications in mining, tunneling, etc. due to its high resistance to abrasion and tear strength. For those heavy-duty applications, the critical lifetime is reached as soon as cracks reach a critical threshold in the TPU material. The first part of the current work illustrates the FCG analysis of the TPU material, i.e. crack propagation measurements on a Tear and Fatigue Analyzer (TFA, Coesfeld GmbH & Co. KG, Germany). Based on the TFA measurements, it is shown how the tearing energy and the FCG rate have a certain regularity at different strain levels and quite a different behaviour compared to standard rubber material. Secondly, a lifetime prediction of the TPU material is derived by means of advanced finite element analysis (FEA). By using Abaqus simulation software (Dassault Systèmes) with advanced material modeling concepts, simulations are performed under the identical conditions as the TFA experiments. The results are plotted in terms of total elastic strain energy density per element (ESEDEN) over FCG rate in the vicinity of the crack tip. In a third step, the lifetime prediction concept ESEDEN is cross-validated by comparing experimental results from a test bench that applies cyclic high strain rate loading to the TPU material with corresponding FEA. As demonstrated the ESEDEN data proves being a promising criterion for lifetime prediction of critical TPU components under cyclic loading conditions.