Viscoelasticity of Rubber-Ice Interfaces Under Shear Studied Using Low-Temperature Surface Forces Apparatus

We performed resonance shear measurement (RSM) based on a low-temperature surface forces apparatus to evaluate the viscoelastic properties of the interfaces between rubber and ice. This method was applied to three kinds of rubbers used for the tire tread, which exhibited different viscoelasticities. These rubbers contained some fillers and exhibited bumps on their surfaces of which the rms roughness was ca. 120nm. A rubber studied as a reference was a rubber without fillers, and showed much smoother surfaces than the other three samples. In the case of the reference rubber, both the elastic (k(2)) and viscous components (b(2)) increased with the increasing L; however, the normalized k(2) and b(2) by the contact area between two surfaces (A) were constant at the various L's. This result indicated that the observed increases in k(2) and b(2) for the referencerubber were only attributed to the increases in A. On the other hand, in the case of the other rubber samples, the normalized k(2) and b(2) by A decreased with the increasing L at a L<10 mN and became almost constant at L>20 mN. This result suggested that characterization of the interfaces of the rough rubber films should be performed at a great enough L in order to avoid the influence of the multiple asperity contact at a lower L. The viscoelastic properties of the interface at a high L were compared with those of the bulk rubbers.