Influence of temperature on tire-pavement friction analyses

Past experimental studies show that tire-pavement friction values are related to conditions surrounding the tire such as pavement temperature, ambient temperature, contained air temperature, and surface characteristics of the pavement. For measurements taken in different temperature conditions, road agencies generally apply correction factors. These correction factors are based primarily on experience and previous field test measurements that have very limited transferability under different conditions. This paper studies frictional behavior of test tires under different surrounding temperature conditions using finite element analysis. The scope of this research is to analyze the effect of pavement temperature, ambient temperature, and contained air temperature on frictional measurements. Finite element analysis of fully and partially skidding tires over different asphalt pavement surfaces, namely, porous asphalt, ultrathin surface, and stone mastic asphalt, is considered. Observation showed that a higher pavement temperature, ambient temperature, and contained air temperature resulted in a lower hysteretic friction for a given pavement surface and a given tire slip ratio. In contrast, a lower tire slip ratio and a pavement with higher macrotexture resulted in higher friction. This study highlights that a critical combination of these factors will decrease friction significantly.