Fracture Mechanism of Radial Tyre Rubber under Ultra-high Pressure Water Jet Impact

Abstract

A new method to recycle radial tyre is studied. The ultra-high pressure water jet technology is applied to achieve the material recycle of radial tyre rubber, the experiments of ultra-high water jet impinging on tread rubber under non-submerged condition are performed, rubber failure surfaces and rubber particles by jet cutting under different actuating pressures are obtained, rubber particle size analysis and low field nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) analysis are performed to evaluate the recycle performance of this new method. The stress distribution of rubber material interior under the impact of water jet is computed by establishing the finite element model of tread rubber using fluid-structure interaction(FSI) theory, and the fracture behavior of the tread rubber is studied by using damage criterion. The simulation analysis agrees well with the experiment results. Micro-failure mechanism analysis with scanning electron microscope(SEM) for rubber failure surfaces and rubber particles is performed, the results show that the micro-mechanism of rubber failure due to water jet impingement is brittleness tendency ductile fracture in condition of tensile and shearing stress, intergranular damage and transgranular fracture are the main microscopic failure modes.