Evaluating Rubber Aging on Tire Durability: Quantitative Evaluation of Rubber Aging

Abstract

Rubber is considered one of the most important polymers in the world due to its variety of uses. There are many different conditions that can affect the useful life of rubber. The purpose of this research was to determine how the mechanical loading on the rubber may affect the aging of the rubber. The scope of the project was to focus on the rubber used for tire production. The research was limited to focusing only on rubber supplied by industry mentors which was styrene-butadiene rubber. By varying the length of time for testing as well as the temperature of the sample using the eXpert ADMET Mechanical Testing System, it was determined that the longer the sample was exposed to significant cyclic stresses, the more degradation that the rubber sample experienced. The data that was collected was important because it was then used by a graduate student to create a model that best represents the data found during the experimentation. In conclusion, the data was significant because the model being created can help to better understand rubber degradation