Abstract
A rotary tribometer has been developed in order to reproduce abrasion wear at the interface between the reinforced rubber material of a tire tread and the road surface, under controlled environmental parameters. The characteristics of the device are described in this paper. It consists in a spherical indenter sliding on the rubber material under study. The control parameters are the normal load, the ratio between the indenter radius and the sample thickness, the sliding velocity, the number of passages, the time interval between two passages, and the temperature. The friction coefficient and weight loss are measured all along the wear test. Wear patterns are observed in situ with an optical pen. We show preliminary results on reinforced natural rubber materials which illustrate the potentialities of the setup. Different wear patterns could be created and observed, according to the conditions.
Highlights
Efforts transmitted by a vehicle are located in the contact zone between the tire tread surface and the road, which is generally of the order of a few hundred squared centimeters
We have developed a new tribometer with in situ optical observation, based on a sliding indenter which allows to mimic the wear of tire treads in soft driving conditions, in laboratory conditions under controlled environment
Several relevant observables can be determined as a function of the number of passages, of the applied load in the contact and of environmental parameters: (i) the friction coefficient, (ii) the weight loss and (iii) wear pattern topographies
Summary
Efforts transmitted by a vehicle are located in the contact zone between the tire tread surface and the road, which is generally of the order of a few hundred squared centimeters. The friction coefficient between the tread and the road must be high in order to provide grip and cornering stability. The size of debris pieces is of the order of micrometers to tens of micrometers typically. It follows that wear is not a continuous process, but is an average result of discontinuous phenomena, at intermediate (submillimetric) scales
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