A major challenge in tire, as well as in road engineering, is to understand the intricate mechanisms of friction. Pavement texture is a feature of the road surface that determines most tire-road interactions, and can be grouped into two classes: macro-texture, resulting mainly in the hysteretic component of friction, and micro-texture, resulting in adhesion. If both textures are maintained at high levels, they can help provide sufficient resistance to skidding. The ultimate objective of this research is to develop a physics-based multiscale rubber-road friction model that can predict the effectiveness of the tire as it interacts with the vehicle and the pavement. The model is developed based on sound physics and contact mechanics theories and uses road profile measurements and data measured on various tire compounds. To be able to predict road surface characteristics, it is proven that road surfaces are of fractal nature on given ranges of scale. It is shown that while global fractal quantities fail to classify pavement profiles, a local fractal parameter and three other texture parameters can separate road profiles that have different friction characteristics. Through the implementation of various contact theories and by conducting simulation studies, a methodical understanding of contact mechanics and of the effect of the diverse factors that influence friction is attained. To predict the viscoelastic friction between any given tire tread compound and road, the Nanovea JR25 portable optical profilometer is used to measure the road profiles. To characterize the road profile, the one-dimensional pavement measurements are used to obtain the two-dimensional power spectrum, followed by testing and characterizing the tread compounds (this is being carried out by Bridgestone). This data is used to develop a comprehensive analytical methodology to predict friction. To validate this model, a Dynamic Friction Test apparatus is designed and built. The friction tester enables measurement of the friction between tread compound samples and arbitrary surfaces, at different slip ratios. The correlations between the simulations and both indoor and outdoor experimental results are investigated. / Ph. D.

A aderência pneu-pavimento é um dos parâmetros mais importantes da segurança viária e deve ser avaliada em duas escalas: microtextura e macrotextura. As medidas de textura da superfície de pavimentos podem ser obtidas por diversos equipamentos, sendo que os mais difundidos são o Pêndulo Britânico e a Mancha de Areia. Dessa forma, esta pesquisa pretende utilizar esses dois equipamentos para verificar o comportamento da textura em função do tempo/tráfego para diferentes tipos de revestimentos. Para tanto, foram realizados levantamentos dos valores de micro e macrotextura em pavimentos da rodovia BR-290/RS, trecho Osório-Porto Alegre, com uma freqüência aproximadamente mensal durante um período inferior a um ano. Com base nos dados coletados, foi possível desenvolver tendências de desempenho da micro e macrotextura para pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos dessa rodovia. Os modelos propostos para a estimativa da textura podem ser usados como ferramentas auxiliares no Sistema de Gerência de Pavimentos (SGP), prevendo o momento oportuno para intervenções na superfície dos pavimentos de modo a garantir a segurança dos usuários. Após a análise dos resultados, constatou-se que, no geral, os pontos de monitoração da rodovia BR- 290/RS apresentam boas condições de aderência pneu-pavimento quando avaliados pelo International Friction Index (IFI), que é um índice representativo da combinação entre a macro e microtextura do pavimento. Além dos modelos para estimativa da textura, desenvolveu-se nesta pesquisa um modelo de correlação entre os resultados dos ensaios de Mancha de Areia e de Drenabilidade, possibilitando, assim, a estimativa do IFI através do valor da vazão de água na superfície do pavimento. / Tire-road friction is one of the most important parameters regarding the safety of vehicles under slippery road conditions. Road surface texture is currently evaluated using several devices. In Brazil, the British Pendulum and the sand-patch method are most frequently used to measure microtexture and macrotexture, respectively. They were used in the research reported in this dissertation that aimed at verifying texture evolution with time/traffic on different types of pavement wearing courses. Thus, micro and macrotexture values were monthly measured in surveys carried out during one year in Brazilian Federal Road BR- 290/RS. Collected data allowed defining performance trends regarding micro and macrotexture of asphalt and Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements. The models here proposed might be used as auxiliary tools in Pavement Management Systems (PMS) to estimate the time when a given rehabilitation action is necessary to assure vehicle and drivers safety. Results analysis showed that the surveyed pavements present adequate tire-road friction, when evaluated by the International Friction Index (IFI) which combines pavements macro and microtexture. In addition, a model relating results of the sand-patch method to drainability results is proposed. Such model allows the estimation of the IFI based on values of water inflow through the pavements wearing courses.

A aderência pneu-pavimento é um dos parâmetros mais importantes da segurança viária e deve ser avaliada em duas escalas: microtextura e macrotextura. As medidas de textura da superfície de pavimentos podem ser obtidas por diversos equipamentos, sendo que os mais difundidos são o Pêndulo Britânico e a Mancha de Areia. Dessa forma, esta pesquisa pretende utilizar esses dois equipamentos para verificar o comportamento da textura em função do tempo/tráfego para diferentes tipos de revestimentos. Para tanto, foram realizados levantamentos dos valores de micro e macrotextura em pavimentos da rodovia BR-290/RS, trecho Osório-Porto Alegre, com uma freqüência aproximadamente mensal durante um período inferior a um ano. Com base nos dados coletados, foi possível desenvolver tendências de desempenho da micro e macrotextura para pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos dessa rodovia. Os modelos propostos para a estimativa da textura podem ser usados como ferramentas auxiliares no Sistema de Gerência de Pavimentos (SGP), prevendo o momento oportuno para intervenções na superfície dos pavimentos de modo a garantir a segurança dos usuários. Após a análise dos resultados, constatou-se que, no geral, os pontos de monitoração da rodovia BR- 290/RS apresentam boas condições de aderência pneu-pavimento quando avaliados pelo International Friction Index (IFI), que é um índice representativo da combinação entre a macro e microtextura do pavimento. Além dos modelos para estimativa da textura, desenvolveu-se nesta pesquisa um modelo de correlação entre os resultados dos ensaios de Mancha de Areia e de Drenabilidade, possibilitando, assim, a estimativa do IFI através do valor da vazão de água na superfície do pavimento. / Tire-road friction is one of the most important parameters regarding the safety of vehicles under slippery road conditions. Road surface texture is currently evaluated using several devices. In Brazil, the British Pendulum and the sand-patch method are most frequently used to measure microtexture and macrotexture, respectively. They were used in the research reported in this dissertation that aimed at verifying texture evolution with time/traffic on different types of pavement wearing courses. Thus, micro and macrotexture values were monthly measured in surveys carried out during one year in Brazilian Federal Road BR- 290/RS. Collected data allowed defining performance trends regarding micro and macrotexture of asphalt and Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements. The models here proposed might be used as auxiliary tools in Pavement Management Systems (PMS) to estimate the time when a given rehabilitation action is necessary to assure vehicle and drivers safety. Results analysis showed that the surveyed pavements present adequate tire-road friction, when evaluated by the International Friction Index (IFI) which combines pavements macro and microtexture. In addition, a model relating results of the sand-patch method to drainability results is proposed. Such model allows the estimation of the IFI based on values of water inflow through the pavements wearing courses.

A aderência pneu-pavimento é um dos parâmetros mais importantes da segurança viária e deve ser avaliada em duas escalas: microtextura e macrotextura. As medidas de textura da superfície de pavimentos podem ser obtidas por diversos equipamentos, sendo que os mais difundidos são o Pêndulo Britânico e a Mancha de Areia. Dessa forma, esta pesquisa pretende utilizar esses dois equipamentos para verificar o comportamento da textura em função do tempo/tráfego para diferentes tipos de revestimentos. Para tanto, foram realizados levantamentos dos valores de micro e macrotextura em pavimentos da rodovia BR-290/RS, trecho Osório-Porto Alegre, com uma freqüência aproximadamente mensal durante um período inferior a um ano. Com base nos dados coletados, foi possível desenvolver tendências de desempenho da micro e macrotextura para pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos dessa rodovia. Os modelos propostos para a estimativa da textura podem ser usados como ferramentas auxiliares no Sistema de Gerência de Pavimentos (SGP), prevendo o momento oportuno para intervenções na superfície dos pavimentos de modo a garantir a segurança dos usuários. Após a análise dos resultados, constatou-se que, no geral, os pontos de monitoração da rodovia BR- 290/RS apresentam boas condições de aderência pneu-pavimento quando avaliados pelo International Friction Index (IFI), que é um índice representativo da combinação entre a macro e microtextura do pavimento. Além dos modelos para estimativa da textura, desenvolveu-se nesta pesquisa um modelo de correlação entre os resultados dos ensaios de Mancha de Areia e de Drenabilidade, possibilitando, assim, a estimativa do IFI através do valor da vazão de água na superfície do pavimento. / Tire-road friction is one of the most important parameters regarding the safety of vehicles under slippery road conditions. Road surface texture is currently evaluated using several devices. In Brazil, the British Pendulum and the sand-patch method are most frequently used to measure microtexture and macrotexture, respectively. They were used in the research reported in this dissertation that aimed at verifying texture evolution with time/traffic on different types of pavement wearing courses. Thus, micro and macrotexture values were monthly measured in surveys carried out during one year in Brazilian Federal Road BR- 290/RS. Collected data allowed defining performance trends regarding micro and macrotexture of asphalt and Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements. The models here proposed might be used as auxiliary tools in Pavement Management Systems (PMS) to estimate the time when a given rehabilitation action is necessary to assure vehicle and drivers safety. Results analysis showed that the surveyed pavements present adequate tire-road friction, when evaluated by the International Friction Index (IFI) which combines pavements macro and microtexture. In addition, a model relating results of the sand-patch method to drainability results is proposed. Such model allows the estimation of the IFI based on values of water inflow through the pavements wearing courses.

Noise is a growing health concern as urban residents increases rapidly and more reports of noise causing sleep disturbances and increasing the risk of cardiovascular health problems are published. Noise has a negative influence on life quality. This life quality deficiency also shows in housing and office pricing in noisy environments. Housing and office prices are often higher in quiet areas than in noisy areas. Therefore noise is both a health issue and has big economic consequences. The biggest contributor to the road traffic noise is the tire/road noise at speeds above 50km/h. Therefore this is an important aspect to monitor and the problem has to be alleviated. In this thesis the client Ramböll has gotten many contracts concerning the state of the roads from governmental institutes. As a part of the evaluation of the roads they want to implement the noise emission as a factor. This gives the government institutions another parameter that helps in the decision of which part of the road network to refurbish first. In the effort to decide what is best way for Ramböll to measure noise a new setup for measuring noise has been developed. The most used ways of measuring tire/road-noise is the close proximity (CPX) -method and the statistical pass-by (SPB) -method. These methods both give accurate results but they have drawbacks. The SPB measurements are time consuming and only give noise levels for a small patch of a road. CPX measurement on the other hand require costly and time consuming development of a measurement trailer. Certifying the trailer and maintenance work of it is expensive. So this report shows a first step in how to build a measurement setup and what aspects were taken into consideration when it was designed. A close proximity measurement setup in the form of a tube with a microphone placed inside it was built and installed underneath the measurement vehicle. The  measurement setup designed and built was named the Tube-CPX measurement setup in this report. The measurements performed with this Tube-CPX measurement setup show promising results. Similarities between CPX measurement setup and the Tube-CPX setup have been found both in the frequency spectrum as well as in the relation with pass-by measurement noise levels. The repeatability of the Tube-CPX measurements is even better than the compared CPX measurements. Although results are promising more work is required before the Tube-CPX setup can be seen in operation at Ramböll. In particular the question which source causes which sound pressure is required to understand the measured levels. And also more controlled pass-by measurements have to be performed to determine the relation of the absolute values measured at the tire/road impact spot to the values that are most interesting, namely the sound pressure levels that the human at the side of the road depicts.

No description available.

Lack of drivers knowledge about the abrupt changes in pavement friction and poor performance of the vehicle stability, traction and ABS controllers on the low friction surfaces are the most important factors affecting car crashes. Due to its direct relation to vehicle stability, accurate estimation of tire-road characteristics is of interest to all vehicle and tire companies. Many studies have been conducted in this field and researchers have used different tools and have proposed different algorithms. One such concept is the Intelligent Tire. The application of intelligent tire in tire-road characterization is investigated in this study. Three different test setups were used in this research to study the application of the intelligent tires to improve mobility; first, a wheeled ground robot was designed and built. A Fuzzy Logic algorithm was developed and validated using the robot for classifying different road surfaces such as asphalt, concrete, grass, and soil. The second test setup is a portable tire testing trailer, which is a quarter car test rig installed in a trailer and towed by a truck. The trailer was equipped with different sensors including an accelerometer attached to the center of the tire inner-liner. Using the trailer, acceleration data was collected under varying conditions and a Neural Network (NN) algorithm was developed and trained to estimate the contact patch length, effective tire rolling radius and tire normal load. The third test setup developed for this study was an instrumented Volkswagen Jetta. Different sensors were installed to measure vehicle dynamic response. Additionally, one front and one rear tire was instrumented with an accelerometer attached to their inner-liner. Two intelligent tire based algorithms, a tire pressure estimation algorithm and a road condition monitoring algorithm, were developed and trained using the experimental data from the instrumented VW Jetta. The two-step pressure monitoring algorithm uses the acceleration signal from the intelligent tire and the wheel angular velocity to monitor the tire pressure. Also, wet and dry surfaces are distinguished using the acceleration signal from the intelligent tire and the wheel angular velocity through the surface monitoring algorithm. Some of the model based tire-road friction estimation algorithms, which are widely used for tire-road friction estimation, were also introduced in this study and the performance of each algorithm was evaluated in high slip and low slip maneuvers. Finally a new friction estimation algorithm was developed, which is a combination of experiment based and vehicle dynamic based approaches and its performance was also investigated. / PHD / Lack of driver’s knowledge about the abrupt changes in pavement friction and poor performance of the vehicle stability, traction and ABS controllers on the low friction surfaces are the most important factors affecting car crashes. Due to its direct relation to vehicle stability, accurate estimation of tire-road characteristics is of interest to all vehicle and tire companies. Many studies have been conducted in this field and researchers have used different tools and have proposed different algorithms. One such concept is the Intelligent Tire. The application of intelligent tire in tire-road characterization is investigated in this study. Five main algorithms are developed in this study. First a fuzzy-logic terrain classification algorithm is developed for the small wheeled ground robot that classifies all different surfaces into four known categories; asphalt, concrete, sand and grass. A six-wheel grand robot was designed and built for this study and instrumented with intelligent tire, a tri-axial accelerometer embedded to the tire inner-liner, and other appropriate sensors. The input of the terrain classification algorithm are the intelligent tire signal, the slip ratio at the beginning of the motion and the wheel speed. The second algorithm is an intelligent tire based algorithm to estimate the tire normal load. A portable tire testing trailer, which is a quarter car test rig attached to the back of the trailer and towed by a truck was used for this part of the project. The trailer test setup was instrumented with different sensors and the tire normal load was controlled through a pneumatic force transducer and an air-spring system. A Neural Network algorithm was then trained that estimates the tire normal load using intelligent tire signal, the tire pressure and the wheel speed. The third and fourth algorithm are intelligent tire based algorithms to monitor the tire pressure and the road surface condition respectively. An instrumented vehicle, which was a Volkswagen Jetta 2003, was prepared and used for this part of the project. The inputs of these algorithms were the intelligent tire signal and the wheel speed and the outputs were the tire pressure condition and road surface condition (dry/ wet) respectively. The last algorithm is a new friction estimation algorithm, which is a combination of experiment based (intelligent tire) and vehicle dynamic based approaches. The algorithm is validated with the experimental data collected using the trailer test setup.

Le travail de cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre de la réduction du bruit du traffic routier. Le contact pneumatique/chaussée représente la principale source de ce phénomène dès la vitesse de 50 km/h. Dans ce contexte, une nouvelle démarche de modélisation du comportement dynamique d'un pneumatique roulant sur une chaussée rigide est développée. Au niveau du pneumatique, un modèle périodique est adopté pour calculer les fonctions de Green du pneumatique dans la zone de contact. Ce modèle permet de réduire considérablement le temps de calcul et de modéliser le pneumatique dans une large bande de fréquence. Le modèle est validé en le comparant avec un modèle d'éléments finis classique réalisé sous le logiciel Abaqus. Habituellement, la réponse temporelle du pneumatique peut être calculée par une convolution des fonctions de Green et des forces de contact. Cette technique est très coûteuse en terme de temps de calcul. Nous avons adopté une nouvelle démarche. L'idée consiste à décomposer les fonctions de Green dans une base modale. Les paramètres modaux sont ensuite utilisés pour construire une convolution plus rapide. La convolution modale est adaptée au problème de contact par l'addition d'une condition de contact cinématique. Le modèle de contact est comparé à la méthode de pénalité dans le cas d'un exemple académique. Il présente l'avantage de sa stabilité et de sa facilité de mise en oeuvre. Dans la dernière partie de ce travail, le modèle de contact est appliqué au cas d'un pneumatique roulant sur différents types de chaussée. Le contenu spectral des forces de contact est étudié en fonction de la vitesse de déplacement et la rugosité des chaussées. Afin de construire le modèle de contact d'un pneumatique réel sur une chaussée réelle, plusieurs exemples à complexité croissante sont traités. Le modèle d'anneau circulaire sous fondation élastique est largement étudié dans cette thèse. Une étude détaillée du modèle est réalisée dans les cas analytique et numérique / This work is part of the traffic noise reduction programme. The tire/road contact is the principal source of this phenomenon at speeds greater than 50 km/h. In this context, a new approach to modeling the tire vibration behavior during rolling on rigid road surface is developed. For the tire, a periodic model is used to compute Green's functions of the tire in the contact area. This model leads to a significant reduction of computing time reduction. Tire's response can be modeled in a large frequency range. The model is compared to a classic finit elements model built using Abaqus software. As a general approach, the dynamic response of the tire is calculated by convolution of the contact forces with the Green's functions. However the computation of the convolution can be time consuming. In this work we have used a new method. First it consists of the modal expansion of the pre-calculated Green's functions. The modal parameters are then used to construct a new convolution which allows quicker calculations than the traditional convolution. The modal convolution is adapted to dynamic contact problem by using a kinematic contact condition. Contact model is compared to the penalty method. Both methods give the same result but the developed method is more stable and easier to implement.In the last chapter of this work, the contact model is applied to a $3d$ tire model rolling on different road profiles. Spectrum content of the contact forces is studied for different values of the car speed and roughness of the roadway. During this study, several examples with an increasing complexity are studied. The ring on elastic foundation model is presented in details with both analytical and numerical computations

Doctor of Philosophy / The control systems installed in modern vehicles lack crucial information regarding the interaction between the tires and the road surface. This knowledge gap significantly impacts the safety and control of the vehicle. Thus, to address this issue, this research introduces a novel fusion approach to estimate friction at the tire-road contact interface. This hybrid fusion friction estimation algorithm employs techniques like signal processing and machine learning, backed up by information from various vehicle and tire dynamics models, to develop algorithms that estimate the level of friction between the tire and the road. This fusion approach enables more precise estimations of the friction coefficient in both normal driving situations and scenarios involving sudden changes in speed or road conditions. Therefore, this research aids in enhancing vehicle safety and control by providing improved information about such tire-road interactions.

No description available.