Numerical Investigation of the Sliding Contact of Tire Rubber Material Due to a Blade Sliding Indentation

Abstract

The manufacturing technology of tire rubber material to improve its performance is still developing. Mechanical and tribological properties are considered in the rubber manufacturing. One of the important tribological properties is the braking capacity of the tire which is strongly associated with sliding contact. However, theoretical as well as experimental methods are still difficult to be applied to analyse these properties due to the unique behaviour of rubber material. This study proposes a numerical investigation of the sliding contact of rubber material due to a rigid blade sliding indentation using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). In this FE simulation, the rubber material is modelled as a hyper-elastic material with Money-Rivlin type for Strain Energy Function (SEF). There are three types of rubber material analysed, the first and second type are commonly used in vehicle tires i.e. vulcanized rubber 1 (R1) and vulcanized rubber 2 (R2), while the third type is a new product in the form of Solution Styrene Butadiene Rubber (S-SBR). Sliding indentation is carried out at a specified sliding speed with several depths and contact surface roughness. The simulation results shown are in the form of the rubber surface deformation, friction forces, and stress distribution. In general, the simulation results show that the S-SBR has a slightly higher coefficient of friction (COF) than the other types.