Effects of Silica Surface Modification on nonlinear Viscoelastic Properties of Rubber Compounds

Reinforcing fillers such as silica are often added to rubber to improve its properties and performance. Silica is highly used in tire tread compounds for its known effect on tire performances such as rolling resistance, traction, and wear.The problem of using silica as filler is its highly polar andhydrophilic surface that leads to both poor rubber-filler and strong filler-filler interactions, consequently silica surface must be modified [1-3]. In this work, a commerciallyprecipitated silica and its modified type were used in a SBR rubber compound, and non-linear dynamic properties as a result of filler network breakdown with strain (Payne effect) has been measured and Kraus model was used to fit the data