Fracture behavior of rubber-like materials under classical fatigue crack growth vs. Chip & cut analysis

Abstract

The understanding of fracture behavior of rubber-like materials is of great practical importance for the prediction of rubber-like product's life time. The aim of this work is concentrated to mechanism of tyre tread failure working in hard terrain based on the experimental determination of the fracture data with respect to real loading conditions. The relationship between Fatigue Crack Growth (FCG) and Chip & Cut (CC) behaviors of blends based on Natural Rubber (NR) and Polybutadiene Rubber (BR) suitable for tyre tread application has been investigated. The fracture mechanical analyses under real pulse as well as commercially used sinusoidal cyclic loading conditions were performed using Tear Analyzer (TA). The Chip & Cut behavior has been studied using a own developed dynamic wear testing equipment based on gravimetric determination of mass loss of test specimen and energy-input during the testing period. We demonstrate the specific relationship between crack growth rate at given tearing energy as well as crack growth exponent and dynamic rubber wear in dependence of blend composition. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group.