Materials and Design 57 (2014) 180185

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Technical Report

Prediction of the fatigue life of natural rubber composites by articial

neural network approaches
Ke-Lu Xiang a,b, Pu-Yu Xiang a,b, You-Ping Wu a,c,
a

State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
Key Laboratory of Beijing City on Preparation and Processing of Novel Polymer Materials, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
c
Beijing Engineering Research Center of Advanced Elastomers, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 26 July 2013
Accepted 17 December 2013
Available online 3 January 2014

a b s t r a c t
A back-propagation articial neural network (BP-ANN) model was established to predict fatigue property
of natural rubber (NR) composites. The mechanical properties (stress at 100%, tensile strength, elongation
at break) and viscoelasticity property (tan d at 7% strain) of natural rubber composites were utilized as
the input vectors while fatigue property (tensile fatigue life) as the output vector of the BP-ANN. The
average prediction accuracy of the established ANN was 97.3%. Moreover, the sensitivity matrixes of
the input vectors were calculated to analyze the varied affecting degrees of mechanical properties and
viscoelasticity on fatigue property. Sensitivity analysis indicated that stress at 100% is the most important
factor, and tan d at 7% strain, elongation at break almost the same affecting degree on fatigue life, while
tensile strength contributes least.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Rubber materials are widely used in the tires. The life of tire is
strongly affected by the fatigue property of the rubber composite
[1]. The fatigue property of the rubber material depends on many
factors and conditions, such as rubber formulation, the mechanical
properties [2,3], loading history, the external environment [4], and
so on. In addition, thermo-chemical, mechanicalchemical and oxidative degradation makes this problem even more complex. Usually, the fatigue property data is mainly obtained by experimental
method, which requires a lot of time and money, so establishing a
mathematical model to predict the fatigue property of rubber material can reduce the cost of experiments. Up to now, many researchers have used some mathematical models to study the fatigue
performance of rubber materials [5], and however, little research
on building the model of the relationship among the mechanical
properties, viscoelasticity property and fatigue property has been
carried out.
Articial neural network (ANN), as an effective modeling method, has a good self-learning ability, and moreover it can simulate
nonlinear function in arbitrary precision [6,7]. Jancic-Stojanovic
et al. [8] found that training multi-layer perceptron (MLP) with
back propagation (BP) algorithm was suitable for the analysis of
Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China. Tel.: +86 10
64442621.
E-mail address: wuyp@mail.buct.edu.cn (Y.-P. Wu).
0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2013.12.044

chromatographic behavior of indinavir. Zhang et al. [9] established

an ANN based on genetic algorithm to optimize the polymer content of maleic anhydride grafted styreneethylenebutylenestyrene. Demirhan et al. [10] used ANN to investigate the properties
of styrenebutadiene rubber (SBR-1712) compounds and found
that it was reasonable for carbon black grade selection. Abdalla
et al. [11] established an ANN based on Radial Basis Function
(RBF) to predict the low-cycle fatigue life of steel reinforcing bars
and concluded that ANN was accurate and practical. Considering
that fatigue property of rubber composites was affected by several
variables, the nonlinear analysis method, ANN, is suitable for
investigation of the fatigue property [12].
In this paper, a back-propagation articial neural network (BPANN) model, which consisted of fatigue life, three mechanical
properties (stress at 100%, elongation at break, and tensile
strength) and hysteresis (tan d at 7% strain) of the natural rubber
(NR) composites, was established by MATLAB 7.0 software to predict the fatigue property of NR composites. However, ANN, known
as the black box, has a disadvantage of complex structure with
no universally physical meaning [13,14], and it is difcult to nd
out which input parameter has the greatest impact on the output.
To solve the problem, we introduced a sensitive analytical method
[15,16] based on the partial derivative of the output vector to the
input vectors, and thus we obtained the maximum sensitivity coefcient matrix, and deduced the most critical affecting factor on
fatigue property of NR composites. The results will provide deeper
understanding of the fatigue property of the rubber composite, and
guide the design for the high fatigue-resistant rubber composite.

K.-L. Xiang et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 180185

181

within a certain range. So, the original data is normalized into the
range of [1, 1], using formula (6):

2. Simulation
2.1. Back-propagation articial neural network (BP-ANN)

x
The structure of BP-ANN is shown in Fig. 1. In the three-layer
BP-ANN, if the input of the input layer is p, according to the neural
network mapping relationship, the input and output parameters of
the hidden and output layers can be described in the mathematical
formula (1)(4)

in1 w1  p b1

out 1 f1 in1

in2 w2  out 1 b2

out 2 f2 in2

in which in1 and in2 are the input parameters of hidden layer and
output layer, respectively; b1 is the threshold value connecting input layer to hidden layer, and b2 is the threshold value connecting
hidden layer to output layer; w1 is the weight (probability of data
transmission along a path) connecting input layer to hidden layer,
and w2 is the weight connecting hidden layer to output layer;
out1 and out2 are the output parameters of hidden layer and output
layer, respectively; f1 and f2 are the transfer functions of hidden
layer and output layer [17,18], respectively. In addition, out2 can
be regarded as the overall output of the ANN.
The main task of the neural network is approximating the specied error by a non-linear function and making a prediction. Therefore, a non-linear transfer function should be selected between the
input layer and the hidden layer to complete advanced processing.
Here hyperbolic tangent function tansig is chosen as the transfer
function between the input layer and the hidden layer, that is,
x
x
f1 x eex e
. On the other hand, the mapping between the hidden
ex
layer and output layer is simple, so linear function pureline is chosen as the transfer function between the hidden layer and output
layer, that is, f2(x) = x .
2.2. Sensitivity matrix
The network sensitivity matrix is the partial derivative of out2
to input p of BP network. So, the partial derivative of out2 to input
p can be obtained from formula (5):

@out 2 @out 2 @in2 @out 1 @in1




f20 in2  w2  f10 in1  w1
@p
@in2 @out1 @in1 @p

where x is the normalized data, x is the original data, min x and

max x are the minimum and maximum of all original data,
respectively.
In our study, we set up the network input as p = A  p + B and
output as out 2 C  out2 D after normalizing, and then p is computed using formula (7):

p  min p
max p  min p
1
min p

 p 
A  p B


max p  min p
max p  min p

where p is the normalized input data, p is the original input data,

min p and max p are the minimum and maximum of all original
p
1
input data, respectively. Therefore, A max p min
; B  maxmin
p
p min p

When the output is regarded as out 2 C  out2 D after normalizing, C and D can be calculated in the same way above.
Then, the partial derivative of
original output out 2 for original
@out2

input p can be obtained by @p according to formula (8):

@out 2 @out 2 @out 2 @p



C 1  f20 in2  w2  f10 in1  w1  A
@p
@out 2 @p @p

The partial derivative of f1(x), f2(x), which are given above, can
be calculated by formula (9):
2

f10 x 1  f1 x ; f20 x 1

According to formula (9), formula (8) can be changed into formula

(10):

n
o
@out 2
2
C 1  w2  1  f1 in1   w1  A

@p
n
o
2
C 1  w2  1  f1 w1  A  p w1  B b1   w1  A

10

When a BP-ANN has been established, w1, w2 and b1 are xed. Matrixes A, B, C and D can be calculated by formula (7). According to
formula (10), the matrix of partial derivative of original output to
the original input variable, namely sensitivity matrix, can be computed, and then the most important factors on the fatigue property
of NR composites can be gured out.

In order to ensure that the data convergence is fast and accurate,

the range of input (p) and output (out2) of BP network should fall

Fig. 1. The structure of BP-ANN.

x  min x
max x  min x

2.3. Sample data and validation data

The twenty-six sets of experimental data of NR composites are
shown in Table 1 and their formulae are presented in Table 2. Tensile fatigue life was measured via vertical fatigue machine (MZ4003B, Jiangsu Mingzhu test machinery Factory) at 100% tensile
strain and 25 C according to ISO 6943:2007(E) [19]. The size of
tensile fatigue test samples is single edge notched strip of
100 mm  15 mm  2 mm with a 1 mm cut [20]. The mechanical
properties of NR composites were measured via tensile testing machine (CMT4104, Shenzhen Xinsansi measure technology Co., Ltd.)
according to ASTM: D412-06a.
In order to be consistent with tensile fatigue testing condition
100% tensile strain, we chose stress at 100%. Tensile strength and
elongation at break are the most basic mechanical parameters for
rubber composites. And so, stress at 100%, tensile strength and
elongation at break were chosen as inputs of ANN. Hysteresis (tan d
at 7% strain) measured via rubber processing analyzer (RPA2000,
Alpha Technologies Services LLC) was used as the forth input of
ANN according to ASTM: D6204-12. The reason is that rubber processing analyzer can measure hysteresis at the wide range of

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K.-L. Xiang et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 180185

Table 1
Fatigue life, mechanical properties and loss tangent (tan d) of 26 sets of NR composites.
Samples

Tensile fatigue life 103

Stress at 100% MPa

Tensile strength MPa

Elongation at break %

tan d at 7% strain

Training data
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23

54.5
12
11
9
7.5
11
13.5
10
11
21.5
19
10
102.7
8.4
14.1
97.3
24.1
35
37.1
32
25.5
14.5
33.8

1.8
2.1
2.4
2.7
3.1
3.6
2.9
3.2
3.3
3.0
3.3
3.3
1.8
3.2
2.1
1.6
2.8
2.3
2.2
2.1
2.4
2.5
2.2

21.4
25.0
27.8
30.0
28.7
28.8
28.3
28.9
28.7
28.6
29.4
26.9
16.6
22.2
25.3
21.9
23.8
24.3
24.7
24.6
25.0
26.4
25.6

511
514
521
526
520
454
453
456
444
492
465
424
430
382
471
505
437
491
492
505
507
516
551

0.211
0.230
0.211
0.187
0.187
0.155
0.165
0.178
0.173
0.170
0.171
0.148
0.294
0.302
0.301
0.314
0.239
0.229
0.229
0.231
0.235
0.239
0.257

Validation data
24
25
26

21.5
10
35.8

3.3
3.4
2.4

26.0
29.4
24.4

418
477
488

0.167
0.175
0.234

strains from 0.7% to 40%, and tan d at 7% strain is the largest for the
rubber composites. So the choice of tan d at 7% strain to characterize hysteresis is reasonable.
All the samples were divided into training samples and validation samples according to the principles of data selection. In order
to avoid the data gaps after extracting the validation samples, the
samples with closed fatigue life values should be given the priority
as the validation ones. From Table 1, the tensile fatigue life values
of samples 24, 25, and 26 were closed to samples 10, 8, and 18,
respectively. Therefore, samples 24, 25, 26 were chosen as the validation ones.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Establishment of the BP-ANN
MATLAB 7.0 Neural Network Toolbox was used to constitute BPANN. In shortly, stress at 100%, tensile strength, elongation at break
and tan d at 7% strain were named as F1, F2, F3 and F4, respectively.
The normalized results of F1, F2, F3 and F4 were utilized as input
vectors of the neural network, and the normalized result of tensile
fatigue life as output vector. The neuron number in hidden layer
was determined according to the empirical formula n = 2m + 1
[4], where m was the number of input parameters and n was the
neuron number in hidden layer. In our study, m was 4, and, so n
was 9. Thus, the network structure was 4  9  1.
As for the choice of training function, if we choose the training
functions with a slow speed of convergence, for example, traingd or
trainbfg [21], it will take longer time to found a suitable neural network. In our study, the training function trainlm utilizing LevenbergMarquardt algorithm was taken, because of its fast
convergence and advantage of avoiding falling into partial extremum. Learning function learngd and performance function mse
were adopted [22].
In order to ensure the fast and accurate convergence, the input
and output were normalized into the range of [1, 1]. In training

stages, epoch number and error goal were selected as 10,000 and
0.001, respectively.
The training process of BP-ANN is shown in Fig. 2. The training
line of network global error was smooth, and after 14 iterations the
network global error was 0.000950829, less than the error goal
0.001, demonstrating that the established ANN can quickly reach
the error goal.
In order to validate the training effect of the above ANN, we
compared the predicted data and experimental data of twentythree training samples, and the results are shown in Fig. 3. Obviously, the errors between the predicted data and the experimental
data were very small and the training effect was excellent. The
average training accuracy was 93.5%, indicating that the established ANN could be used for validation data in the following
analysis.
For the three validation samples, the results predicted by the
above established ANN are shown in Fig. 4. The prediction results
of sample 24, 25 and 26 were 20.276, 10.188 and 35.662, respectively. The prediction accuracy of the three validation samples
were 94.3%, 98.1%, 99.6%, and the average accuracy was 97.3%,
indicating that the established ANN is effective and feasible.
3.2. Sensitivity analysis
In this study, the sensitive analytical method based on the partial derivative of input variables is a local-sensitive analytical
method. So, the sensitivity matrix reects the sensitivity coefcient near a certain observational point. In order to observe the
trend of the sensitivity of the input vector in the global scope,
we calculated the sensitivity matrixes of four inputs F1, F2, F3
and F4 in the range (10%, 10%) of their mean value points. The
mean values of F1, F2, F3 and F4 were 2.65, 25.87, 478.85 and
0.22, respectively, and the corresponding calculation ranges of
F1, F2, F3 and F4 were (2.385, 2.915), (23.283, 28.457), (430.965,
526.735) and (0.198, 0.242), respectively.
Considering that there were four input vectors in our study, it
was inconvenient to display the sensitivity coefcient results in

183

K.-L. Xiang et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 180185

Table 2
Recipes of 26 sets of NR composites.

Table 2 (continued)

NR
Zinc Oxide
Stearic Acid
Accelerator DM
Accelerator CZ
Accelerator TT
Accelerator NS
Accelerator DTDM
Accelerator D
Antioxidant 4010
Antioxidant 4020
Antioxidant RD
Wax
Carbon Black
N115
Carbon Black
N220
Carbon Black
N234
Carbon Black
N330
Plasticizer
Si69
Sulfur
Silica VN3

100
5
2
1.8

100
5
2
1.8

100
5
2
1.8

100
5
2
1.8

100
5
2
1.8

100
5
2

1.7

100
5
2

1.7

1
1

100
5
2

1.7

1
1
1

100
5
2

1.7

2
1

25

25

25

25

25

25

25

25

25

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

6
3
1.4

6
3
1.7

6
3
2.0

6
3
2.3

6
3
2.5

6
3.5
2.3

6
3.5
2.3

6
3.5
2.3

6
3.5
2.3

Recipes

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

NR
Zinc Oxide
Stearic Acid
Accelerator DM
Accelerator CZ
Accelerator TT
Accelerator NS
Accelerator DTDM
Accelerator D
Antioxidant 4010
Antioxidant 4020
Antioxidant RD
Wax
Carbon Black
N115
Carbon Black
N220
Carbon Black
N234
Carbon Black
N330
Plasticizer
Si69
Sulfur
Silica VN3

100
5
2

1.7

1
45

100
5
2

1.7

100
5
2

1.7

100
5
1
1.8

1.5
1.5
1

100
5
1
1.5

1.5
1.5
1

100
5
1

1
2

1.5
1.5
1

100
5
1

0.7
1.4

1.5
1.5
1

100
5
2

1
1
1

100
5
2

1
1
1

45

25

25

25

25

25

25

45

20

20

20

20

20

15

6
3.5
2.3

6
3.5
2.3

6
3.5
2.3

6
3
1.4

0.3

0.3

0.3

6
3
1.7

6
3
1.7
5

Recipes

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

NR
Zinc Oxide
Stearic Acid
Accelerator DM
Accelerator CZ
Accelerator TT
Accelerator NS
Accelerator DTDM
Accelerator D
Antioxidant 4010
Antioxidant 4020
Antioxidant RD
Wax
Carbon Black
N115
Carbon Black
N220
Carbon Black
N234
Carbon Black
N330

100
5
2

1
1
1

100
5
2

1
1
1

100
5
2

1.3
0.4

1.5
1.5
1

100
5
2
1.8

0.2

1.5
1.5
1

100
5
2
1.8

1.5
1.5
1

100
5
2

1.7

100
5
2

1.7

100
5
2

1.5

0.4

1.5
1.5
1

45

25

25

25

25

25

25

25

12

10

20

20

10

20

20

Recipes

Plasticizer
Si69
Sulfur
Silica VN3

6
3
1.7
8

6
3
1.7
10

6
3
1.0

6
3
1.5

6
3
1.5
10

6
3.5
2.3

6
3.5
2.3

6
3
1.0

Fig. 2. Training curve of BP neural network model.

original data
prediction data

100

80

Output

Recipes

60

40

20

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

Sample serial number

Fig. 3. Training results of BP-ANN.

the meantime, and we xed two input vectors at their mean values, and calculated the partial derivatives of the other two input
vectors. The sensitivity matrix consisted of the partial derivative
values, and therefore, the larger the partial derivative was, the
greater the input vectors impact on the fatigue life.
Firstly, in Figs. 5 and 6, F3 and F4 were xed at the their mean
values 478.85 and 0.22, respectively, while F1 and F2 were increased from 10% to 10% of their mean values with the step
length of 2% of mean value, that is, the calculative ranges of F1
and F2 were (2.385, 2.915) and (23.283, 28.457), respectively. Then
we obtained the partial derivative results (sensitivity coefcient
matrix) of F1 and F2: 441(2121) data totally. The partial derivative results of F1 and F2 are shown in Figs. 5 and 6, respectively.
In the title of Figs. 58, PD means partial derivative for short.

184

K.-L. Xiang et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 180185

original data
prediction data

output

30

20

10

sample 24

sample 25

sample 26

Sample
Fig. 4. Prediction results of BP-ANN.

Fig. 7. Sensitivity matrix of F3 when xing F1 and F2.

Fig. 8. Sensitivity matrix of F4 when xing F1 and F2.

Fig. 5. Sensitivity matrix of F1 when xing F3 and F4.

Fig. 6. Sensitivity matrix of F2 when xing F3 and F4.

At the mean value points of F1 and F2 marked by black dots, the

sensitivity coefcient value of F1 is 22, and the one of F2 is 3.2 in
Fig. 6. The uctuation range of sensitivity matrix in Fig. 5 is 16.8
to 41.7 for F1 and 1.2 to 7.6 for F2 in Fig. 6. These results illustrated

that the sensitivity coefcients of F1 are much larger than those of

F2.
Then, the F1 was xed at the mean point 2.65 and F2 was xed
at 25.87, while F3 and F4 were increased from 10% to 10% of the
mean values with a step length of 2% of mean value. Thus, the calculative range of F3 and F4 is (430.965, 526.735) and (0.198,
0.242), respectively. The partial derivative results of F3 and F4
are shown in Figs. 7 and 8. At the points of F3 and F4 mean values
marked by black dots, the sensitivity value of F3 is 10, and the sensitivity value of F4 is 9. The uctuation range of sensitivity matrix
in Fig. 7 is 5.2 to 19.7 for F3 and 6.1 to 12.8 for F4 in Fig. 8.
Based on the results above, the sensitivity coefcients of F1, F2,
F3, and F4 at their mean values are 22, 3.2, 10, and 9, respectively.
This result indicates that stress at 100% (F1) is the most important
factor, and elongation at break (F3), and tan d at 7% strain (F4) exhibit almost the same affecting degree on the fatigue life, while
tensile strength (F2) contributes least.
The results can be explained as follows: fatigue life experiments
were conducted at 100% tensile strain, and the NR composite with
a higher stress at 100% should undertake higher stress. So, the input energy from outside increased with the increase in stress at
100%, resulting in a reduced fatigue life. Therefore, the stress at
100% is the most important factor as expected. On the other hand,
the rubber viscoelasticity causes hysteresis that dissipates energy,
which decreases the stored energy of the rubber materials used for
crack propagation. Meanwhile, if the rubber material has a larger

K.-L. Xiang et al. / Materials and Design 57 (2014) 180185

elongation, it means that the rubber molecules can extend and orientate more easily, and accordingly improving the resistance of
crack growth. So hysteresis and elongation at break are also important factors.
Mars and Fatemi in their review [2] commented that a large
number of factors affecting fatigue life of rubber had been studied
individually, and the ability to integrate such diverse results into
accurate fatigue life predictions remained an ambitious and elusive
goal. In our study, the results of sensitive analysis give a quantitative understanding of the material property factors affecting fatigue property of rubber, especially hysteresis [5]. To the best of
our knowledge, this study is the rst to give a clear picture about
the connections among the basic mechanical property parameters,
hysteresis and fatigue life by the method of sensitive analysis
based on the BP-ANN. The method is not only applied to investigate the roles of affecting factors of fatigue property for NR rubber
composites, but also provides a new potential way for the research
into other properties of rubber materials. We will continue our
study along this direction.

4. Conclusions
A BP-ANN model consisting of fatigue life, three mechanical
properties (stress at 100%, tensile strength, elongation at break),
and hysteresis (tan d at 7% strain) was established to predict the
tensile fatigue life of the NR composites, and the average prediction
accuracy for fatigue life was 97.3%. A sensitive analytical model
based on the partial derivative of the output vector to the input
vectors was developed to quantitatively understand the above
property parameters on fatigue property of NR composites. According to the result of sensitivity analysis, stress at 100% was the most
important factor affecting the fatigue life of NR composites; hysteresis and elongation at break exhibit almost have the same affecting
degree on the fatigue life, which is consistent with the fatigue
mechanism.

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support of the
Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, Ministry
of Education of China (Grant Number: NCET-10-0202), and the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 51073009).

185

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