Abrasion Resistance and High Speed Tensile Strength of Elastomers

In earlier communications, we defined abrasion, especially of tires, as a thermal-oxidative process caused at high velocity of mechanical rupture. Other authors (e.g., Schallamach, Boggs, Zapp etc.), with theoretical and experimental tests, prove the importance of viscoelastic behavior as a characteristic property for abrasion. The results of experiments on six elastomers (NR, IR, BR, SBR, IIR, and EPT) compared in tire tread compounds are communicated and discussed in the present work. Tensile strength was determined over a temperature range of 20° to 140° C at deformation speeds of 10 to 20,000 % elongation per second. Forced, non-resonant vibrations were used to determine viscoelastic properties, e.g., resilience, storage modulus, and loss modulus. As abrasion is a consequence of frictional processes, coefficients of friction, dependent on temperature, were measured on dry, wet, and frosty asphalt/fine concrete track. The apparatus is briefly described. From these test results, an empirical relation established between abrasion, friction, viscoelastic properties, tensile strength at high speed and temperature allows one to predetermine the abrasion behavior of a vulcanizate in the laboratory.