Abrasion of Rubber and Its Relation to Tire Wear

Abstract

Abstract Sliding abrasion experiments reveal that the abrasion loss has to be expressed as a power function of the dissipated energy. Both the abrasion loss per unit energy dissipation and the power index depend on the compound and on the type of surface on which the experiment is being carried out. Hence the relative rating of a compound depends on pressure and on surface roughness. This nonlinear dependence on energy dissipation leads also to a rating dependence of slip of the wear of slipping wheels or the wear of tires. If the abrasion energy function for different compounds can be determined, then the wear ranking for different tires should be predictable using the slipping wheel theory. Experiments with tires running under controlled slip conditions show that this is not the case. Predictions differ even in ranking of compounds. Dissipation processes generate heat, so that temperature conditions in the contact area and their influence on the abrasion loss have to be considered in addition to mechanical rupture and fatigue. Laboratory experiments using slipping model wheels are being discussed which use testing conditions designed to generate different temperatures in the contact area. Compound rankings and ranking reversals are obtained which are in agreement with tire wear experiments under controlled slip conditions.