Physics-Based Friction Model With Potential Application in Numerical Models for Tire-Road Traction

Good understanding of friction in tire-road interaction is of critical importance for vehicle dynamic control systems. Most of the friction models proposed to describe the friction coefficient between tire-treads and road surfaces have been developed based on empirical or semi-empirical relations that are not able to include many effective parameters involved in the tire-road interactions. Therefore, these models are just useful in limited conditions similar to the experiments, and do not accurately represent tire-road traction in numerical tire models. However, in last two decades, a few theoretical models have been developed to calculate the tire-road friction coefficient theoretically by considering both viscoelastic behavior of tire tread compounds and multi-scale interactions between tire treads and rough road surfaces. In this article, a novel physics-based model proposed by Persson has been investigated and used to develop computer algorithms for calculation of sliding friction coefficient between a tire tread compound and a rough substrate. The viscoelastic behavior of tread compound and the surface profile of rough counter surface are the inputs of this physics-based theoretical model. The numerical results of the model have been compared with the experimental results obtained from a dynamic friction tester designed and built in the Center for Tire Research (CenTire). Good agreement between numerical results of theoretical model and experimental results has been found at intermediate range of slip velocities considering the effect of adhesion and shearing in the real contact area in addition to hysteresis friction due to internal energy dissipation in the tire tread compound.