An advanced abrasion model for tire wear

The abrasion processes of rubber or tires are extremely complex phenomena and basically different from those of other materials. Much research in tire industry has been done to predict the wear of a tire tread. However, such studies have not considered the history dependency of abrasion as well as directional effects. This paper is to propose an advanced abrasion model for rubber that will takes these two effects into account. As a result the new model can be applied to predict tire tread wear. Within this model, directional damage will be introduced to characterize the history of frictional sliding contact including the change of slip directions. It also covers local contact conditions such as contact pressure, slip velocity or flash temperature. The model will be analyzed theoretically and numerically. A FEM simulation for the Grosch-wheel with different loading conditions using the new abrasion model is performed and validated by experimental data.