Role of Frictional Heating in Rubber Friction

The energy dissipation in the contact regions between solids in sliding contact can result in high local temperatures which may strongly affect the friction. This is the case for rubber sliding on road surfaces at speeds above 1 mm/s. I derive equations which describe the frictional heating for arbitrary (non-uniform) motion, taking into account that some of the frictional energy is produced inside the rubber due to the internal friction in rubber. Numerical results are presented for one limiting case for steady sliding.