Problems of numerical simulation of stress and strain in the area of the adhesive-bonded joint of a conveyor belt

Belt conveyors are commonly used in-factory transportation devices built of sections of belt (e.g., a fabric-rubber belt) bonded into a continuous loop. Conveyor belt joints are exposed to substantial dynamic loads during the long time of their operation. Taking into account the fact that ensuring a high durability of conveyor belt joints is tantamount to guaranteeing their reliable operation and that the results of research conducted so far fail to provide unambiguous solutions to a number of problems that emerge in this case, it is advisable that advanced studies using computer techniques should be conducted within this area. Of particular help in the search for new structures and optimum methods for joining conveyor belt sections is finite element analysis, which, however, entails a number of problems. This paper describes the circumstances of occurrence of these problems and potential solutions to them. One important problem in FEM modeling is appropriate definition of the models of the analyzed materials. In the case of conveyor belt adhesive-bonded joints composed of rubber and a gum rubber adhesive, the analyses found in the literature, as a general rule, assume the hyperelastic material model based on the Mooney-Rivlin law, which, however, is a fairly arbitrary choice made without verification against actual strength test data. Rubber is a unique material, capable of very large deformations, by virtue of which it is counted among hyperelastic materials. Such materials require appropriate constitutive models and a reliable choice thereof in each particular case. Adequately precise modeling of the behavior of rubber materials still remains an open question. However, access to strength test data makes it possible to check experimentally which of the available theoretical models best reproduce the behavior of the modeled material. For that purpose, the available hyperelastic material models were tested separately for each constituent rubber material of the analyzed conveyor belt adhesive joint. The models were assessed with regard to the degree of their conformity with experimental data by analyzing the behavior of the hyperelastic material in a given case based on the constructed reaction curves using selected strain energy potentials for the available test data.