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Summary

Here, we present a method for determining the friction coefficient of pavements with different ice thicknesses indoors. The complete procedure includes the preparation of the equipment, the calculation and analysis of the snowfall, equipment calibration, friction coefficient determination, and data analysis.

Abstract

Ice on road surfaces can lead to a significant decrease in the friction coefficient, thus endangering driving safety. However, there are still no studies that provide exact friction coefficient values for pavements covered in ice, which is detrimental to both road design and the selection of winter road maintenance measures. Therefore, this article presents an experimental method to determine the friction coefficient of icy road surfaces in the winter. A British portable tester (BPT), also known as a pendulum friction coefficient meter, was employed for the experiment. The experiment was divided into the following five steps: the preparation of the equipment, the calculation and analysis of the snowfall, equipment calibration, friction coefficient determination, and data analysis. The accuracy of the final experiment is directly affected by the equipment accuracy, which is described in detail. Moreover, this article suggests a method for calculating the ice thickness for corresponding amounts of snowfall. The results illustrate that even patchy ice formed by very light snowfall may lead to a significant decrease in the friction coefficient of the pavement, thus endangering driving safety. Additionally, the friction coefficient is at its peak when the ice thickness reaches 5 mm, meaning protection measures should be taken to avoid the formation of such ice.

Introduction

Pavement friction is defined as the grip between the vehicle tires and the underlying road surface1. The index most commonly associated with pavement friction in road design is the pavement friction coefficient. Friction is one of the most important factors in road design and is second only to durability. There is a strong and clear correlation between pavement friction performance and accident risk2. For example, there is a significant negative correlation between road accident rates and pavement skid resistance3,4,5. Several f....

Protocol

1. Preparation of the equipment

  1. BPT
    1. Ensure that the BPT (Figure 1) is within its service life and that the surface is clean and undamaged.
      NOTE: The components of the BPT are the base, leveling spiral, leveling bubble, pointer, pendulum, lifting spiral, fastening spiral, handle, and dial.
  2. Asphalt slabs
    1. Ensure that the asphalt mixture sample size used for the experiment is 30 cm x 30 cm x 5 cm.
    <.......

Representative Results

Sample 7 in Table 4 is the dry sample control group, while the remaining samples 1-6 correspond to ice thicknesses ranging from very light snow to a large blizzard.

When comparing sample 7 and the other six groups, ice formation was observed to significantly reduce the friction coefficient of the pavement. Furthermore, the pavement friction coefficient decreased with increasing ice thickness, and the ice thickness tended to stabilize at 5 mm, which corresponds to medium snow. .......

Discussion

The present paper examines the procedure for testing the friction coefficient of icy pavement using a BPT. Several points need to be comprehensively analyzed and are discussed in detail here. First, in terms of the preparation of the asphalt mixture samples, one should try to use road petroleum asphalt to prepare the samples, but this is not a requirement. The preparation of the asphalt mixture samples should be performed in strict accordance with the ASTM (D6926-20) experimental protocols, as this affects the accuracy o.......

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Scientific Research Program Funded by the Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (Program No. 21JK0908).

....

Materials

NameCompanyCatalog NumberComments
BrushShenzhen Huarui Brush Industry Co., LTDL-31
Freezing equipmentHaier GroupBC/BD-251HD
Measuring cylinderZhaoqing High-tech Zone Qianghong Plastic Mould Co., LTDlb1
Pavement thermometer Fluke Electronic Insrtument CompanyF62MAX
Pendulum Friction Cofficient MeterMuyang County Highway Instrument Co., LTD/
Rubber sheetJiangsu Muyang Xinchen Highway Instrument Co., LTD785120123500
Sliding length ruler Jiangsu Muyang Xinchen Highway Instrument Co., LTD785120123500
TripodHangzhou Ruiqi Trading Co., LTDTRGC1169

References

  1. Rajamani, R., Piyabongkarn, N., Lew, J., Yi, K., Phanomchoeng, G. Tire-road riction-coefficient estimation. IEEE Control Systems Magazine. 30 (4), 54-69 (2010).
  2. Wallman, C. -. G., Åström, H. ....

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