Design, construction, and evaluation of a modified rolling pendulum to measure energy dissipation in rubber

A practical method to measure the energy dissipation in rubber vulcanizates under rolling condition has been considered. For this purpose, a modified rolling pendulum device was designed and constructed to eliminate the shortcomings of an initial design by Gent. This modified device has a working table, heated rolling plate, symmetric pendulum and an ultrasonic sensor for accurate measurement of the roller travel distance and calculation of rolling resistance parameters for rubber. Performance of this new device was evaluated by measurement of the rolling resistance force and coefficient for rubber vulcanizates containing un-modified and silane-modified nano-silica under different conditions. The device could successfully show the effects of strain, temperature and silica surface modification on rubber rolling resistance parameters, as reported by other researchers.