Sliding behavior of rubber on snow and concrete surfaces

Over the last years great efforts were directed to the numerical descriptio n of the sliding behavior of rubber blocks on various surfaces by means of the Finite Element (FE) Method. Two major mechanisms of the load transfer o f traction forces can be observed depending on the characteristics of the s liding surface. On "soft" surfaces, i.e., snow surfaces, the penetration of the sliding surface by rubber blocks results in a resistance against slidi ng motion. This resistance permits in addition to the frictional process th e transfer of traction forces. Such a mechanism may be viewed as an "edge e ffect". On "hard" surfaces a frictional mechanism is responsible for the tr ansfer of the traction forces. In this paper details of different effects o f both mechanisms are explained. For both of them appropriate numerical mod els were established.