Crack Growth and Wear Properties of Silica-reinforced Styrene-butadiene Rubber Compounds: Effect of Processing Oil Type

ABSTRACT：Commercial grades of solution styrene-butadiene rubbers extended with high aromatic oils having high poly-cyclic aromatic compounds (PCA) and low PCA oils were used to study the effect of the processing oil particularly on the crack propagation resistance and frictional wear resistance of the vulcanizates. The aromatic oil based vulcanizates exhibited superior fracture behavior over the low PCA oil extended vulcanizates based on tensile and trouser tear tests. Compounds with aromatic oil showed superior crack propagation resistance compared with those containing low PCA oil, especially at the lower ranges of tearing energy. In terms of frictional wear resistance, the aromatic oil extended compounds showed superior performance particularly in the lower frictional work (Wf) range but in the higher Wf range the low PCA oil extended vulcanizates performed better