The contact mechanics of a tire in contact with randomly rough surfaces has been the subject of intensive investigations during the last century because of the dependence of wear to parameters such as temperature, humidity or loading. The purpose of this research has thus been to study the behavior of four different rubber compounds to four parameters, namely the shearing rate, the loading, the ground roughness and the sculpture, by the means of compression/shear tests. The testing environment has been simplified by considering only a rubber tread block and by neglecting the flattening effect during tire rolling of the tire. Because of the complexity of a 3D FEA model would require, a numerical 2D model of the test has been proposed so as to simulate and replicate the behavior of these rubber compounds, where both the viscoelastic and hyperelastic response of the materials are considered and where a meticulous analysis has been conducted on the 3D-2D ground profile transformation. Validation of the model’s hypotheses have been obtained by direct comparison with the experimental set up results and show to be in good agreement. Once this model has been validated, it can be brought to a more realistic simulation environment considering a more complex geometry and more types of solicitation amongst others. Sculpture coupling

Treball Final de Grau en Enginyeria en tecnologia Industrial. Codi: ET1040. Curs acadèmic 2014-2015