Road wear test simulation

Table 26.7 gives a list of the boundary conditions which define a tire wear test simulation and in fact also an acmal road test. The road surface is the laboratory surface on which the abrasion data for the simulation were obtained. There is as yet no definition of a road surface and even if there were one, it would be of httle use since road surface structures change frequently along the road surface as pointed out earlier. 

Correlation between Laboratory Road Test Simulation AND Road Wear Test Results... 

FIGURE 26.80 Major contributions to the wear in a road test simulation. 

The wear resistance of rubber compounds is of great practical importance for tires, but the mechanisms involved in tire wear are multiple and may vary depending on the vehicle, the driving conditions, and other extraneous variables. Many attempts have been made to develop laboratory test methods to simulate tire wear under various conditions. Whilst none can fully replicate road wear, various laboratory abrasion tests can be used to provide an indicator of wear resistance of tires under certain conditions. 

Wear is important in applications as diverse as tires, conveyor belting, footwear, and windscreen wiper blades, yet most of us would accept that the rubber industry still awaits a laboratory test or series of tests that can predict service performance with any confidence. Over the years, there certainly has been no shortage of small-scale tests for abrasion resistance and indeed no shortage of claims or reports of satisfactory correlation with the behavior of various products, but strong doubts remain, and some sectors, not least the tire industry, conclude that there is no substitute for a service trial or a simulated product test, for example, a road trial on tires held at a small slip angle to accelerate wear. 

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