Abstract. Rubber wear typically involves the removal of small rubber particles from the rubber surface. On surfaces with not too sharp roughness, e.g. most road surfaces, this involves (slow) crack propagation. In this paper I shall present a theory of mild rubber wear. I shall derive the distribution of wear particle sizes Φ(D), which is in excellent agreement with experiment. I shall also show that the calculated wear rate is consistent with experimental data for tire tread block wear.

Print publication: Issue 48 (2 December 2009)
Received 17 January 2009, in final form 18 June 2009
Published 30 October 2009