Experimental Study on Rubber-Granite Friction in Dry and Contaminated Contact

In this study, the rubber-granite contact for a dry surface and two types of contamination, were analyzed by performing a series of experiments under controlled conditions, in the laboratory, using specialized equipment. These experiments were carried out under conditions close to those in reality, respectively for three cases, as follows: clean rubber-granite contact, contact in the presence of a runway deicer fluid and contact in the presence of aircraft deicing fluid. The paper presents a comparative analysis for the measured values of the friction coefficients in the rubber-granite contact, sliding friction, for three different values of the normal force, dry contact and the two types of contamination, at ten values of the measurement speed on each set. Conclusions resulting from the study are: in sliding motion, in the case of friction on a dry surface, the values of the friction coefficient are mainly influenced by adhesion and the microtopography of the contact surface, while in the case of contamination adhesion decreases; for the analyzed contact, the contaminant with lower viscosity affects the values of the friction coefficient in contact less than the contaminant with higher viscosity, which significantly decreases the values of the friction coefficient.