'Nature' reports on wet grip between rubber and asphalt

Basingstoke, UK--The December issue of Nature Materials magazine, the prestigious scientific journal, has published an article on the interaction between rubber, water and asphalt, which was co-sponsored by Pirelli.

A statement from the magazine says, "A group of Italian and German scientists ... reasoned that because the main cause of friction for rubber is the viscoelastic deformation in response to roughness in the road surface, a theory based on internal damping in rubber could be used to simulate the sliding friction of rubber on wet rough surfaces. Calculations proved the authors' hypothesis that water pools formed on wet roads smooths the surface, reducing the viscoelastic deformation that causes friction. When the theoretical predictions were checked against experimental tyre-asphalt data they were found to be in excellent agreement."

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Press release from Nature Materials

Abstract of article, including author details