English Abstract
Characteristics of Tires on Texture of Iced Road Surface
Mitsuya NIHEI
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Nippon Gomu Kyokaishi,(2007),80(4),153-158 General Review in Japanese


Abstract
Tire performance on iced road depends on the characteristics of the ice on roads. Caused by the prohibition of application of the studded tires on the winter roads (1990-), the condition of the tires and winter roads have been varied extremely. AIST had developed the In-Door Tire Tester to study and clarify the characteristics of tires on iced roads. This paper describes outline of this In-Door Tire Tester and interesting tire phenomena on iced roads obtained through the studies on this tester. One phenomenon is characteristics on the smooth ice surface and the other is the one on the rough ice surface. Namely:@(1) The tire characteristics on the smooth ice depend on ice temperature and the electric conductivity of the ice for the test. So, we proposed to measure the electric conductivity of the water obtained by melting the test ice as the index (or scale) for classifying the characteristics of the test ice. (2) Braking force coefficients on the rough ice surface depend on the texture of the ice surface (amplitude and wavelength of the surface roughness).


Keywords:
Tire, Winter Road, Iced Road, Safety, Texture, Characteristic, In-Door Tire Tester
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