This paper aims to clarify the fluid infiltration mechanism at the micro-contact zone boundary of rubber-glass interfaces.
An in situ observation instrument was putted up; then the fluid infiltration process was recorded. Experimental results indicated that the fluid infiltration was more likely to occur in a high-contact-area-ratio zone, and the path order of fluid infiltration was first inner normal to the boundary of micro-contact area, and then along the boundary, at last external normal to the direction of boundary.
By analysis, capillary pressure is the driven force of fluid at interfaces. The micro-channel size at higher-contact-area-ratio zone is smaller, and the capillary pressure is bigger. Moreover, along different section directions of wedge-shaped region, the horizontal driving force of fluid is different due to difference of conical angle.
The main contribution of this study is proposing a new wedge-shaped model for better understanding the phenomena of fluid infiltration at rubber contact interfaces.
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-10-2019-0453
