Correlation of tire wear and friction to texture of concrete pavements

Pavement surface texture significantly contributes to tire wear and tire-pa vement friction. Currently available relationships quantify tire wear and t ire-pavement friction simply in terms of empirical pavement texture paramet ers. The objective of this paper is to present correlations with which the tire wear rate and tire-pavement friction on smooth concrete pavements can be predicted using actual texture properties. Using a laboratory tire wear simulator and an aircraft tread-rubber block, a number of wear and friction tests are performed on pavement samples having different fine aggregate si zes. Frequency characteristics of the texture of the pavements are achieved by decomposing the profilometer measurements using the fast Fourier transf orm technique and constructing power spectral density plots of texture over surface spatial frequency. Then the tire wear rates as well as dry frictio n and wet friction of the tire-pavement interface are correlated to microte xture and macrotexture components of the texture power spectral density. Th e developed correlations indicate that both tire wear and dry friction are significantly affected by pavement microtexture. The developed wear correla tions can be also useful for predicting the wear index of a pavement based on conventional Mu-meter and grease patch test results. This is illustrated by an example in which the wear index for a concrete runway pavement at Lu ke Air Force Base, Ariz., is computed using the new relations.