Influence of compression ratio on microstructure and mechanical behavior of metal rubber

Metal rubber specimens of the same size and mass were manufactured separately with different roughcast heights, and the compression ratio was defined as the ratio of the roughcast height to the metal rubber height. So these different compression ratio specimens were analyzed and then subjected to compression loading in quasi-static regime. The results exhibited that the compression ratio significantly influenced the metal rubber apparent structure and the anisotropy properties along molding and non-molding directions. When the compression ratio was 5 to 6, there were more vertical stacking helix wires in the metal rubber specimens, with a relative small stiffness along the molding direction. When the compression ratio was about 2, the metal rubber specimens exhibited a much bigger stiffness along the molding direction, but an obvious smaller stiffness along the non-molding direction than other specimens. These results indicated that the compression ratio was an important impact factor for the metal rubber behavior and should be well considered during manufacturing and design process.