MANE 6960
A Tribological Approach to
Tire Wear
Research Paper Proposal
Andrew Wright
10/23/2012
MANE 6960
2/9/16
In my research paper for MANE 6960, I plan to investigate the Tribological concepts that
surround the friction and wear of rubber, specifically as it applies to car tires. There are two main topics
that I will discuss: the rubber friction process, and the “sealing effect” of rubber wear in the presence of
water. I have done some background research for the purposes of creating this proposal, and some of the
reference articles I found are included in the REFERENCES section below. The paper will be based on
research, the majority of which will be published articles, and may include some examples of the
mechanics involved in the Tribological concepts.
The sealing effect of rubber is an interesting Tribological phenomenon that is important in many
fields, including the automobile industry. The basic principle behind the sealing effect has to do with the
reduction in friction examined when rubber is wet. In fact, it has been empirically found that the friction
in rubber tires can drop off by 20-30% when the rubber is wet [6]. The general theory is that the water
gets trapped in the substrate asperities of the pavement, and when the rubber tires roll over the surface the
pair creates a seal. This seal acts like a polished surface that can reduce friction at the interface. I will
devote some of the research for my paper into this phenomenon, and provide more details and some
analysis to elaborate.
The second half of my paper will be devoted to the principles that make up the friction of rubber.
Friction and wear of rubber materials is influenced by many factors, including the roughness of the
substrate surface, the material properties of the rubber, viscoelastic effects, as well as temperatures. One
friction phenomenon relating to the temperature of the rubber is called the flash temperature. The flash
temperature is the local temperature spike in rubber that is created when it slides over a rough surface [4].
Another major concept that influences rubber friction are the viscoelastic properties of the rubber. One of
the main points Persson makes in his paper, “Rubber Friction on Wet Rough Substrates at Low Sliding
Velocity: The Sealing Effect”, is that the adhesive component of rubber friction is negligible when the
substrate surface is very rough. This means that rubber friction is mainly influenced by the bulk
properties of the rubber [2].
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MANE 6960
2/9/16
REFERENCES
1. Phys. Rev. B 71, 035428 (2005): Rubber friction on wet and dry road surfaces: The sealing effect.
(n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2012, from http://prb.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v71/i3/e035428
2. Rubber Friction on Wet Rough Substrates at Low Sliding Velocity: The Sealing Effect. (n.d.).
Retrieved October 24, 2012, from http://digitallibrary.sissa.it/handle/1963/4858
3. Rubber friction: role of the flash temperature - Abstract - Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter IOPscience. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2012, from http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-8984/18/32/025
4. Persson, B. N. J., Albohr, O., Tartaglino, U., Volokitin, A. I., & Tosatti, E. (2005). On the nature of
surface roughness with application to contact mechanics, sealing, rubber friction and adhesion. Journal
of Physics: Condensed Matter, 17(1), R1–R62. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/17/1/R01
5. Liu, F., Sutcliffe, M. P. F., & Graham, W. R. (2012). Prediction of tread block forces for a free-rolling
tyre in contact with a rough road. Wear, 282-283, 1–11. doi:10.1016/j.wear.2011.12.014
6. Meyer W E and Walter J D 1983 Frictional Interaction of Tire and Pavement STP 793 (Philadelphia,
PA: American Society for Testing and Materials) p 85 (ISBN: 0803102313)
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