Characteristics of tire-road wear particles (TRWPs) and road pavement wear particles (RPWPs) generated through a novel tire abrasion simulator based on real road pavement conditions

Abstract

Microparticles such as tire-road wear particles (TRWPs) and road pavement wear particles (RPWPs) are generated by the friction between tire tread and road surface. TRWPs and RPWPs on roads are dispersed through traffic and transferred to rivers and seas via runoff to accumulate in sediments. However, research on the generation of both TRWP and RPWP has rarely been conducted. In this study, the generation of both TRWP and RPWP was investigated using a novel tire abrasion simulator equipped with paved road and bus tire, and their contributions to the generation of microparticles were examined. Two types of model paved roads, asphalt and concrete pavements (AP and CP, respectively), were applied. TRWPs generated from the simulator exhibited morphologies very similar to those on real roads. The abrasion rate for the CP was 2.8 times higher than that for the AP. The wear particle size distributions peaked at the size ranges of 63–106 μm and 212–500 μm for the AP and CP, respectively. Totals of 84 wt% and 89 wt% of the wear particles were distributed in size ranges of 38–212 μm for the AP and 106–1000 μm for the CP. The tire wear particle (TWP) contents in the total wear particles of 38–500 μm were 21.7 wt% and 30.0 wt% for the AP and CP, respectively, and decreased as the particle size decreased. The weight of RPWP was higher than that of TWP in TRWP. Contributions from road pavement to the generation of wear particles of 38–500 μm were 3.6 and 2.3 times higher than those from tire tread for the AP and CP, respectively, and the contribution increased as the wear particle size decreased.