Erroneous or Arrhenius—Potential Impact of Oven Temperature Variations on Laboratory Aging of Tires

Abstract During the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F09.30 Tire Aging Task Group’s development of a test standard for the accelerated oven aging of tires, seemingly erroneous results were obtained from a single test method being conducted by multiple facilities. Ultimately, these differences were associated with variations in oven temperature among the sites involved. The Arrhenius Law provides a means of understanding the potential impact of oven temperature variation on thermal oxidative aging of tires and is used to draw inferences with respect to both laboratory oven aging and local ambient temperatures. Limitations of applying the Arrhenius equation, possible actions to compensate for oven-to-oven and within-an-oven temperature variation, and suggestions for potential validating experiments are also discussed.