Study on the Influence of Environmental Conditions on Road Friction Characteristics

Abstract

This study focuses on changes in the friction characteristics of paved roads under various conditions from the viewpoint of traffic safety. In general, the braking characteristics of road vehicles are examined using the μ–s characteristics of the tires. Therefore, in our research, we used three types of limited datasets and identified them using the Magic Formula proposed by Prof. Pacejka. Based on various experiments, it was shown that changes in the road surface environment, such as dry and wet conditions, significantly affect the μ–s characteristics, and this influence varies significantly depending on the pavement conditions. In this study, as the first stage of the analysis of these influences, it was clarified that the difference in the friction characteristics of wet and dry road surfaces varies significantly depending on the pavement surface, which is based on experimental results obtained using actual roads. As this variation is closely related to the safety of actual road traffic, we used a brush model, which is a dynamic model of the road surface and tires, to clarify the differences in this characteristic.