Rubber friction on 3D-printed randomly rough surfaces at low and high sliding speeds

Rubber friction depends on the surface roughness of the counter surface, e.g. a road surface. We have measured the friction for two rubber compounds sliding on randomly rough surfaces produced by 3D-printing. The surfaces had different macro-roughness and the friction experiments were performed over six decades in speeds, from 10−6 m s−1 to 1 m s−1, on both dry and lubricated substrates. The viscoelastic modulus master curves of the rubber compounds, and their large-strain effective modulus were obtained from dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The measured friction coefficients were compared to the calculations of rubber friction using Persson's contact mechanics theory. The role of the macro-level roughness is discussed.