Calculation of skid resistance from texture measurements

There is a wide range of routine skid resistance measurement devices on the market. All of them are measuring the friction force between a rubber wheel and the wetted road surface. Common to all of them is that they are relatively complex and costly because generally a truck carrying a large water tank is needed to wet the surface with a defined water layer. Because of the limited amount of water they can carry they are limited in range. Besides that the measurement is depending on factors like water film thickness, temperature, measurement speed, rubber aging, rubber wear and even road evenness and curviness. All of these factors will affect the skid resistance and are difficult to control. We present a concept of contactless skid resistance measurement which is based on optical texture measurement and consists of two components: measurement of the pavement texture by means of an optical measuring system and calculation of the skid resistance based on the measured texture by means of a rubber friction model. The basic assumptions underlying the theoretical approach and the model itself based on the theory of Persson are presented. The concept is applied to a laboratory device called Wehner/Schulze (W/S) machine to prove the theoretical approach. The results are very promising. A strong indication could be provided that skid resistance could be measured without contact in the future.