Analysis of bonded elastic blocks

We investigate the compression of rubber blocks bonded to rigid metal plates for several different geometries, namely, for rectangular and V-shaped blocks. We obtain reasonably simple solutions in series form relating the force and the displacement using the “pressure method” developed by Gent [1–3]. Our initial assumption concerning the incompressibility of the rubber is subsequently relaxed to “near incompressibility” to yield more accurate solutions. We demonstrate a very good agreement between the theoretical solutions and the results of linear finite element simulations.