Recent Advances in Knowledge of Rubber Friction and Tire Wear

Abstract Progress in the last few years in understanding rubber friction and tire wear justifies a survey of developments since a review of the subject in 1958. Work on fundamental of friction and abrasion has mainly evolved from conceptions formed in the earlier investigations; it had, however, not been realized that wear of tires and, indeed, abrasion on certain laboratory machines brings into play gross properties of the tire or testpiece which affect rate of wear just as much as the actual abrasion resistance of the tread compound. This new field of research has led to rationalization of road testing, and has helped to bridge the gap between laboratory and road. A report on these developments is given. Much of the work is concerned with the viscoelastic nature of rubber friction and abrasion, which has come to light through the experimentally established validity of the rate-temperature equivalence principle for these processes. This principle, which holds good for all viscoelastic processes, is briefly described in the next section in order not to interrupt the subsequent argument.