Development Of A Laboratory Based Dynamic Friction Tester.

Many of the issues faced by tire designers concern the ability to predict the effectiveness of the tire as it interacts with the vehicle and the pavement.  Developing a multi-scale model that can predict the performance of tires on different surfaces is of great interest. Multi-scale pavement measurement devices allow accurate measurement of the pavement surface features. A procedure exists that decomposes the measured road profile data set into different spatial frequency components. In the present work, a laboratory based rubber friction test equipment is being developed, in order to investigate frictional effect of texture wavelengths of different scales. The first step in validating the model that is to be developed is to use a rubber wheel with the friction tester. The apparatus consists of a turntable that has the surface characteristic of choice, while the rubber sample in contact with the turntable which is secured to the fixture will rotate at specific speeds. The wheel speed as well as the turntable speed can be controlled precisely to generate arbitrary values of longitudinal slip. This will allow validation of the multi-scale rubber/road contact model using rubber samples that make up the tire.