Deformation analysis of infinite-strip bearings of laminated elastic material interleaving with tension-only reinforcements

Bonding with fiber reinforcements can increase the stiffness of elastic layers only when the elastic layer is compressed. Fiber loses its rigidity when it is not stretched. The procedure to include this ‘tension-only’ nonlinearity in the deformation analysis of the fiber-reinforced bearing is developed. In the elastic layers bonded with tension-only reinforcements, the responses to the compression force and the bending moment are coupled unless the reinforcements are entirely in tension. The coupled relation, which is not linear, depends on the length of the tension zone in the reinforcement. Increasing the compression force on the bearings will extend the tension zone in the reinforcements and enhance the stiffness of the bearing, but the compression force may add more bending moment to the bearings and increase the lateral deformation. The vertical buckling load of the bearings with tension-only reinforcements varies with the lateral force and is smaller than the buckling load of the bearings with linear reinforcements.