Investigation on Wet Skid Resistance of Tread Rubber

Wet skid resistance is one of the basic properties for tread rubber, which plays an important role in driving performance of vehicles. Firstly, a new test device has been developed for testing wet skid resistance of tread rubber. Then, effect of filled nano silicon, water film depth, normal load and sliding velocity on friction properties of tread rubber have been studied, and contact pressure under different pavement parameters of Rsm, Ra also has been investigated. Finally, friction surface morphology of tread rubber has been investigated by OLYMPUS-DSX510 Optical Digital Microscope. Results indicate that nano silicon instead of silica (white carbon black) can significantly improve wet skid resistance with the same mechanical properties, replacement ratio of 40% is the best; friction coefficient of tread rubber block decreases when the normal load increases, however, it increases and then decreases when sliding velocity increases under dry and wet conditions; contact pressure increases with the increase of Rsm, however, it decreases when Ra increases.