An Evolved Version of the British Pendulum Tester for the Experimental Investigation of Contact Between Tire Tread and Rough Surfaces

This paper deals with the experimental investigation about the sliding contact between tire tread and rough surfaces. To build and to validate reliable tire dynamical behaviour models it is fundamental the knowledge of the local grip in each point of the contact patch since in the contact patch points different conditions arise because of contact pressure, sliding speed, temperature, etc. In the paper after a brief description of the different methods usually adopted to experimentally test the tires with this aim, a new test machine, developed starting from a British pendulum at the Technical Centre Europe Bridgestone, as machine for tribological tests on rubber specimens in sliding contact with rough surface is presented. The scheme of the testing machine and the adopted measurement instruments are illustrated, together with the results of a typical test and the possible interpretations of the obtained results.