Friction Law for Rubber from Laboratory Abrasion Tester

Abstract

This paper aims to devise a method to obtain an empirical friction law for rubber using the Laboratory Abrasion Tester (LAT) 100. The LAT 100 experiments, which aim to measure the side force at various slip angles, loads, and speeds, are carried out, followed by finite element simulation using ABAQUS. A friction law is implemented using a subroutine (UFRIC), which calculates the friction coefficient at each node on the contact patch based on contact pressure and slip velocity at the corresponding node. Coefficients of the frictional law, μ = a + b × e−1/(αp) + c × e−1/(βv), have been estimated by using a series of simulations along with minimizing the error between experiment and simulation side forces. The procedure followed in this paper can be used to fit friction models for rubber using LAT 100 side force experiments.