Effects of heating on the behavior of lead-rubber bearings. ii: Verification of theory

The energy dissipated per cycle and the characteristic strength of lead-rubber bearings reduce with increasing number of cycles as a result of heating of the lead core. A theory which is capable of predicting the histories of temperature rise in the core, of the energy dissipated and of the characteristic strength of lead-rubber bearings has been presented in a companion paper. This paper presents a comparison of predictions of this theory to experimental results obtained in the testing of six lead-rubber bearings. The analytical predictions are found to be sufficiently accurate. Moreover, finite-element analyses results are presented that provide insight into the distribution of temperature in the lead core and end and shim plates of the bearings. These distributions confirm the assumptions made in the development of the theoretical solution.