Intrinsic Wear Behavior of Tire Tread/Carcass Composites

The intrinsic wear behavior of tire tread materials bonded to carcass plies was examined under static footprint load and static axial pretension. Relying on a specially designed test apparatus, the abrasion action was induced with constantly changing directions and cyclic change of sliding speed. A series of wear tests was performed for parametric studies. The morphology of resulting wear surfaces was examined to understand wear mechanisms. The wear process of tire tread materials consisted of a mechanical mode of abrasion when sliding speed was below a critical level. For this range of sliding speed, the extent of tread wear was found to be simply dependent on the cumulative number of abrading head revolution which reflects the total sliding distance. The relationship between the amount of wear and cumulative number of abrading head revolution deviated from linearity when the rotational frequency of abrading head reached a critical level. Above the critical level, because of the contamination of abrasive surface induced by excessive heat build-up, the cumulative amount of wear could be no longer dependent upon the total sliding distance and instead became time-dependent. The issue of abrasive surface contamination could be resolved partially by using new surface during each run of a test. Well below a critical level for ablation, higher temperature tended to be associated with lower wear rates for a broad range of sliding speed.