ABSTRACT
Rubber wear is typically categorised into three different processes: abrasive wear, fatigue wear, and smear wear. The mechanisms of the abrasive and fatigue wear have been extensively studied in the past, however the mechanisms of smear wear still remain unclear in current literature. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the formation of smear wear in tread compounds. Four styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) tyre tread compounds, filled with carbon black or silica, are moulded into rubber discs and subjected to blade abrasion. The smear wear formation is studied for different rotational speeds and normal forces applied to the blade. Finally, the smear wear is collected for each compound, its molecular weight is evaluated using gel permeation chromatography (GPC), its glass transition temperature is obtained using differential specific calorimetry (DSC) and its chemical content is identified using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).
