Friction Characteristics of Porous Rubber Under Wet Conditions

In recent years, porous rubber has been used as a tread matrix for studless tires. It is said that the pores in the tread rubber remove water between the tire and the wet road surface; however, the water removal is not sufficiently well understood. In this study, a rotating rubber specimen was rubbed against a mating prism to observe the contact surface. The friction force was also measured simultaneously with observation of contact surface. The water entering the pores was distinguished by the continuity method. As the result of these experiments, the coefficient of friction for rubber having pores on the surface was found to be larger than that of rubber without pores. Moreover, the difference in the coefficient of friction for rubber specimens with and without pores tended to be larger at lower sliding speeds. No water entered pores 3mm or less in diameter at any sliding speed in this experiment. An experiment to make the rubber specimen collide with the mating prism was conducted since actual tires seem to be deformed by the vehicle weight, such that the tire surface might contact the road collisionally. In the resulting collision experiment, the water did enter pores 3mm in diameter.