Project Completion Report OWRT Project No. A-075-ARIZ / Agreement No. 14-34-0001-7006 / Project Dates: July 1976 - June 1977 / "The work upon which this report is based was supported by funds provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Research and Technology as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, the State of Arizona, and the Arizona Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration

Tank track pads have been known to degrade rapidly under adverse conditions, especially during cross country service where the average life has been estimated to be 500 miles. Several factors have been identified as being the cause for such low service life. One of these is the 'quality of dispersion' which plays an important role in the performance of any rubber compound. In order to evaluate the effect of the quality of dispersion on the service life of rubber compounds, a controlled blending experiment was carried out with a recipe modeled on a standard track pad formula. Mechanisms of failure produced by a bad dispersion have been identified. Two interesting observations were made, one of which was the formation of voids and the other was crack propagation along flow lines which are directly relatable to processing conditions. / Master of Science

This diploma thesis introduces Olympus i-SPEED 2 high speed video camera and its use in the testing of rubber parts. The results gained will be applied to tyre tread development. Two mutually connected high speed cameras were used to record the testing process. Final recordings were put together in order to create panoramic photos.

DC resistance and AC conductance and capacitance have been measured under various conditions in an effort to electrically characterize and make electrical-mechanical correlations for 15 carbon black filled rubber samples. Resistance, conductance and capacitance have been monitored as functions of uniaxial compressive stress, time, temperature, and mechanical and thermal history. Capacitance and conductance have also been monitored as functions of frequency under various degrees of compressive loading and before and after specific heat treatments. A direct relationship has been found between sample • conductance and capacitance under any thermal and/or mechanical condition. This is in agreement with previous theories of conduction network formation and percolation. Various conduction mechanisms have been enumerated and an equivalent circuit of a network of lumped R-C "microelements'' has been qualitatively described. Stress, relaxation, frequency, and temperature dependences of the macroscopic parameters measured ( conductivity and capacitance) are discussed in terms of this model. / M.S.

Global warming sets a high demand to reduce the CO2 emissions of vehicles. In the European Union heavy-duty road transports account for 6 % of the total greenhouse gases and one of the main factors affecting these emissions is related to the rolling resistance of tyres. The optimal usage of tyres is an important part of solving these challenges, thereby it is important to understand the parameters affecting rolling resistance and the different compromises coupled to them. These compromises could be analysed using computational and experimental methods. To set out the groundwork necessary to minimise the energy consumption of trucks and assess the different parameters affecting tyre behaviour, the following studies have been conducted during this thesis. A framework to model and parametrise truck tyre rubber has been developed for finite element simulations. The presented parallel rheological material model utilises Mooney-Rivlin hyperelasticity, Prony series viscoelasticity, and perfectly plastic networks. A method to reduce tuneable parameters of the model, which significantly simplifies possible parameter studies, is presented. The model has been parametrised using test data from dynamic mechanical analysis of samples from a long haulage heavy truck tyre, and shows a good agreement with the test data. To test the suitability of the modelling technique for tyre simulations, the constitutive model is used in various tyre simulations using the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method. The material modelling technique is shown to work for static force-deflection as well as dynamic simulations estimating longitudinal force build-up with varying slip levels. Additionally, the modelling technique captures the uneven contact pressure in steady-state rolling, which indicates that the model could also be used in rolling resistance simulations. To study the change of ambient temperature on rolling resistance using experimental methods, a climate wind tunnel is used where the rolling resistance is quantified using a measurement drum. Tests were conducted between -30 °C and +25 °C, and a considerable ambient temperature dependency on rolling resistance was found. Moreover, temperature measurement inside a tyre shoulder is a good indicator for rolling resistance in a broad range of ambient temperatures. Finally, battery-electric long haulage truck driving range calculations are also conducted with varying rolling resistance and air density at different temperatures, showing a significant decrease of driving range with decreasing ambient temperature. / Den globala uppvärmningen ställer höga krav på att minska tunga fordons CO2-utsläpp. Tunga transporter står för 6 % av de totala växthusgaserna i Europeiska unionen och att fokusera på optimal användning av däck är en viktig del för att minska förorenande växthusgaser. Därför är det viktigt att förstå parametrar som påverkar rullmotståndet och olika kompromisser kopplade till dem. Dessa kompromisser skulle kunna analyseras med hjälp av beräkningsmetoder och experimentella metoder. För att lägga grunden för att minimera energiförbrukningen för lastbilar och bedöma olika parametrar som påverkar däckens beteende, har följande studier genomförts i denna avhandling. Ett ramverk för att modellera och parametrisera lastbilsdäcksgummi utvecklades för finita elementmetod-simuleringar. Den presenterade parallella reologiska materialmodellen använder Mooney-Rivlin hyperelasticitet, Prony-series viskoelasticitet och perfekt plastiska nätverk. En metod har utvecklats för att reducera antalet justerbara materialparametrar i modellen, vilket avsevärt förenklar möjliga parameterstudier. Modellen har parametriserats med hjälp av testdata från dynamisk mekanisk analys och visar en god överensstämmelse mellan testdata och simuleringar. Provstavarna skars ut från ett lastbilsdäck för tunga fordon. För att testa modelleringsteknikens lämplighet användes den konstitutiva modellen i olika däcksimuleringar. Materialmodelleringstekniken har visat sig fungera för statisk vertikalstyvhet såväl som dynamiska simuleringar som uppskattar longitudinell kraftgenerering med varierande slipnivåer och olika friktionskoefficienter. Modelleringstekniken fångar ojämnt kontakttryck vid stationär rullning, vilket indikerar att modellen även kan användas i simuleringar av rullmotstånd. För att studera omgivningstemperaturens inverkan på rullmotståndet med experimentella metoder användes en klimatvindtunnel. Tester utfördes mellan -30 °C och +25 °C och rullmotståndet bestämdes med en mättrumma. Ett avsevärt beroende av omgivningstemperaturen på rullmotståndet påvisades. Dessutom indikerade provningen att temperaturmätning inuti däckskuldran är en bra indikator för rullmotstånd i ett brett område av omgivningstemperaturer. Räckviddsberäkningar för en elektrisk fjärrtransportlastbil utfördes med varierande rullmotstånd och luftdensitet vid olika temperaturer, vilket visade en signifikant minskning av körräckvidden med sjunkande omgivningstemperatur. / <p>QC 220525</p>