I work in the suspension rubber industry and I would recommend Greg's idea. Take the projected area of the bush inner sleeve and distribute it to the arm. I have completed empirical testing similar to what you are trying to model and the projected area makes a very large difference in the...
What about a simple Monte Carlo simulation? If tolerances and process variations are known then Monte Carlo would provide a good means of predicting tolerance stack.
Rubber will crack and deteriorate from stress as well as environment. The harshest environmental concern is ozone. The earlier post referred to sunlight, it's actually the ozone in the air that causes the rubber to crack. Most OEM manufacturer's of rubber products actually add wax to the...
