High-speed tribology behaviors of aircraft tire tread rubber in contact with pavement

Abstract Aircraft tire suffers from high-speed friction due to harsh conditions in landing, which leads to high temperature and the short service life. So, the effect of different sliding speeds on the tribology behaviors of tread rubber was studied theoretically and experimentally. Firstly, high-speed friction and wear tests were carried out by using a self-developed high-speed friction testing apparatus. Then, a thermo-mechanical coupling model was developed to predict the friction temperature of rubber specimen by ABAQUS software. Finally, tribology behaviors of friction temperature, coefficient of friction (COF) and wear performance have been revealed. Results indicated that temperature and wear loss increased when sliding speed increased; however, COF decreased with increasement of sliding speed; ploughing was the main mechanism in rubber abrasion, and thermo-chemical degradation appeared at wear track; the predicted temperature rise was in good agreement with the experimental results.