Simulation of Pavement Texture for Prediction of Hysteresis Friction

Although there are established methods to measure both tire-pavement friction and pavement texture, friction has not been adequately related to pavement surface texture properties. Therefore, a study has been initiated at the University of South Florida to investigate the dependence of tire-pavement friction on pavement texture. A significant development in the first phase of the study is the formulation of a computer-based methodology that can model the 3-D random roughness of a surface with a given Mean Texture Depth (MTD) as measured by the Grease Patch Test. Examination of synthesized surfaces reveals that the MTD of a random surface is almost an invariant along a given pavement. The same procedure is extended to obtain the frequency spectrum of the generated surface using Fast Fourier Transformation. Finally, the basis of a new analytical approach that can utilize the above frequency spectrum to predict the hysteresis friction of a pavement with random roughness, is illustrated.