Effect of particles’ characteristics and road surface’s texture on the tire/road friction

Abstract

This paper presents a laboratory study to investigate the lubrication induced by particles deposited on road surfaces which is responsible for the increase of accidents at the first rain after a long dry period. Particles are extracted from sediments collected at a catchment area and characterized by their chemical composition and size distribution. Protocol to simulate the particle deposit on the road surface and their compaction by the traffic is described. The test program includes variables such as particle concentrations, particles' size fractions and surface textures. Dry friction tests are conducted using the Skid Resistance Tester which simulates the sliding friction between a rubber slider and the test surface. Friction is lowered when the surface is covered by particles, compared with a clean surface. Repeated passages of the slider induce an increase of friction coefficient until reaching a stable value. Particles' flows during a friction run are separated into those ejected from the sample, those stored by the surface macrotexture and those that stay on the test surface; this study demonstrated that the friction coefficient is closely related to the quantity of particles available on the test surface. SEM analysis shows on the other hand that these particles are mainly trapped by the surface microtexture. Similar behavior between fine particles and powder in terms of lubrication mechanisms is observed.

Synergetic effects of surface texturing and solid lubricants to tailor friction and wear – A review

“…Since then, other studies have reported lower friction [66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73] and reduced wear [66, 68-70, 72, 74, 75] on textured surfaces attributed to the ability of textures to trap wear debris. For instance, different textures (parallel and perpendicular grooves as well as dimples) on brass reduced friction after running-in and the corresponding wear rates for all textures in comparison to smooth brass ( Figure 1).…”

Tailored surface textures to increase friction—A review

“…An overview of the use of surface texturing to intentionally increase friction has been presented. Although surface texturing has been one of the most investigated areas in the last few decades (61,342 documents found for "surface texturing" in Web of Science), the aim of the technique in tribological applications is almost always to reduce friction. The number of works found for friction increase due to surface texturing reported as a desired feature was only 62.…”

“…Today, the effects of surface textures on the tribological performance under different lubrication regimes and working conditions are reasonably well explored and understood. For dry conditions, surface textures help to reduce the real area of contact and stiction as well as offer the possibility to store wear debris [46,47,[60][61][62][63]. Under boundary lubrication, surface textures additionally act as a secondary oil source [64] and may help to generate beneficial boundary layers (pressure-induced tribo-layer formation) [65][66][67].…”