Thermomechanical Characterization of Carbon Black Reinforced Rubbers During Rapid Adiabatic Straining

The thermo-mechanical properties of carbon black reinforced natural and styrene butadiene rubbers are investigated under rapid adiabatic conditions. Eleven carbon black grades with varying surface area and structure properties at 40 parts per hundred (phr) loading are studied and the unreinforced equivalents are included for reference. The results show a strong correlation of the modulus, mechanical hysteresis, temperature rise and calculated crystallinity of the rubbers measured in tensile extension with strain amplification factors. This highlights the influence of matrix overstraining on microstructural deformations of the rubber upon extension. The strain amplification factors are calculated via the Guth-Gold equation directly from carbon black type and loading, allowing a correlation of the fundamental morphological properties of carbon black with thermal and mechanical properties of rubbers upon extension. Analysis of the thermal measurements of the rubber compounds upon extension and retraction and contrasting between crystallizing and non-crystallizing rubbers reveals that a substantial irreversible heat generation is present upon extension of the rubber compounds. These irreversible effects most likely originate from microstructural damage mechanisms which have been proposed to account for the Mullins Effect in particle reinforced rubbers

Stabilization of Vehicle Dynamics by Tire Digital Control—Tire Disturbance Control Algorithm for an Electric Motor Drive System

We propose an algorithm with disturbance control for tires on electric vehicles (EVs) so as to improve the steering stability of the vehicle. The effect was validated on EVs equipped with twin independent electric motors on a skid pad. The algorithm with the disturbance controller can remove the external noise generated on tires in order to suppress the abrupt slip and micro vibration generated between the tire and road surface, especially on low friction surfaces at the critical speed of the vehicle. The effective frequency corresponded to tire scale length. The effect was verified by the fact that the hysteresis loop with control on the chart of steer angle and yaw rate showed a smaller loop than those without control. The hysteresis loop with control also appeared at the oversteering area, which can be interpreted as evidence that the algorithm can make the vehicle more stable and gain faster speed on the skid pad. It is concluded that the tire digital control works well without any information from sensors on the vehicle body and without any cooperative control between tires

The Influence of Carbon Black Colloidal Properties on the Parameters of the Kraus Model

The Payne Effect (also known as the Fletcher–Gent Effect) has a fundamental impact on the behavior of filled rubber composites and therefore must be considered during their design. This study investigates the influence of carbon black (CB) surface area and structure on the observed Payne Effect and builds on the existing models of Kraus and Ulmer to explain this phenomenon. Dynamic strain sweeps were carried out on natural rubber (NR) compounds containing eight different grades of CB at equivalent volume fractions. The loss and storage moduli were modeled according to the Kraus and Ulmer equations, using a curve optimization tool in SciPy. Subsequent regression analysis provided strong correlations between the fitting parameters and the CB structure and surface area. Using this regression analysis, this work provides further insight into the physical meaning behind the Kraus and Ulmer models, which are phenomenological in nature