Predicting Useful Life of Green Tires through Different Methodologies

One consideration when evaluating materials is the length of time over which they can be used, also called useful life. This is a complex question, especially for new green tire tread rubber compounds using silica as the main reinforcing filler that results in lower fuel consumption. The current work presents a critical approach of three methodologies used for predicting the useful life of different tire tread compositions. The methodologies considered were Arrhenius; Williams, Landel, and Ferry (WLF); and crack growth propagation. Different temperatures, strains, and mechanical properties were analyzed to evaluate the differences between the useful life of the new green tire tread and the carbon black reinforced reference one. Results showed different useful life for each evaluated property. Moreover, each tire tread composition presented a different useful life for the same property, while the silica reinforced composition presented a lower useful life when compared with the reference one.