1. Investigation of contact mechanics and friction of rubber compounds by experimental techniques and numerical simulations
- Author
-
Cugliari, Jacopo and Cugliari, Jacopo
- Abstract
The contact of car tires with road tracks is a research field of high practical importance since grip properties during tire-road interaction have a direct impact on safety issues. To improve the tire properties it is necessary a deep understanding of the tire-road contact mechanics, as well as the underlying rubber friction physics. Despite this topic is widely investigated, there are no complete predictive models capable to describe the friction interaction for practical applications, for this reason, it still means a big challenge for the scientific community. Therefore, the main objective of the present research is to predict the performances of different rubber materials on dry and wet rough road tracks. The effect of many intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as substrate roughness, rubber-surface affinity, temperature, load, sliding speed, lubrication, geometrical parameters and viscoelastic material properties on contact properties and the resulting friction behavior is investigated. Hence, the complex friction process is split into different subtopics, which are analyzed and modeled. From one perspective, the contact mechanics through a 2D FEM tool is investigated on different substrates to determine the main friction contribution called hysteresis. This contribution is based on the energy losses in a broad frequency scale due to cyclic deformations of the rubber by asperities. An accompanying experimental tool based on the measurement of rubber indentation into substrate asperities is designed to provide a physical understanding of static and dynamic contact problems and to validate the FEM model. The tools developed also provide access to unavailable data, such as local pressures, dissipated energies, contact area and rubber indentation. It was also figured out the effect of rubber geometry on dynamic contact mechanics through experimental and 3D FEM simulations. On the other side, the adhesion is studied as the second main friction contribution, defined a
- Published
- 2021