title: Electron tomography provides a direct link between the Payne effect and the inter-particle spacing of rubber composites.
abstract: Rubber-filler composites are a key component in the manufacture of tyres. The filler provides mechanical reinforcement and additional wear resistance to the rubber, but it in turn introduces non-linear mechanical behaviour to the material which most likely arises from interactions between the filler particles, mediated by the rubber matrix. While various studies have been made on the bulk mechanical properties and of the filler network structure (both imaging and by simulations), there presently does not exist any work directly linking filler particle spacing and mechanical properties. Here we show that using STEM tomography, aided by a machine learning image analysis procedure, to measure silica particle spacings provides a direct link between the inter-particle spacing and the reduction in shear modulus as a function of strain (the Payne effect), measured using dynamic mechanical analysis. Simulations of filler network formation using attractive, repulsive and non-interacting potentials were processed using the same method and compared with the experimental data, with the net result being that an attractive inter-particle potential is the most accurate way of modelling styrene-butadiene rubber-silica composite formation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge, CB3 0FS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Lech
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Staniewicz
authors.affiliation: Manufacture Française des Pneumatiques Michelin, 23 Place des Carmes Déchaux, 63040 Clermont Ferrand Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vaudey
authors.affiliation: Manufacture Française des Pneumatiques Michelin, 23 Place des Carmes Déchaux, 63040 Clermont Ferrand Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Degrandcourt
authors.affiliation: Manufacture Française des Pneumatiques Michelin, 23 Place des Carmes Déchaux, 63040 Clermont Ferrand Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Couty
authors.affiliation: Manufacture Française des Pneumatiques Michelin, 23 Place des Carmes Déchaux, 63040 Clermont Ferrand Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gaboriaud
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge, CB3 0FS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Midgley