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Factors affecting horizontal radius / Friction

There are three parameters which affect horizontal radius: speed, superelevation and friction. Friction is the only parameter which - in theory - has abstract, measurable values. Further, the materials used in road surfacing are generally similar from country to country, so we could expect that the values for friction would be the same from country to country. However it seems that we don't really know what friction is; for example: The coefficient of friction is not a material property. In other words, one cannot state that a certain surface has a specific coefficient of friction. Instead, it is a system property with its magnitude depending on both two surfaces that are in contact (185), (own emphasis), and The mechanisms of tire-pavement friction interaction are not fully understood (185) The problem of estimating friction is made worse since there are different ways of measuring it, and that the results of these different methods are not necessarily comparable. Then, even where observed values for friction have been obtained, engineers have to answer the question, "what is the relationship between measured values for friction and values selected for use in highway design?". If there are more than twenty factors which affect friction (see below) how can someone decide on a value which will apply to all weather conditions, tyre types and patterns, road surface temperatures, road surface materials and so on - and do highway engineers in different countries make the same decisions and conclusions? International friction index Work has been done on the development of an international friction index (IFI) - see for example "To harmonize the friction measurements by different devices, the World Road Association - Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (PIARC) performed an experiment in Belgium and Spain in 1992 and came up with a new friction index, IFI (Wambold et al., 1995). The IFI consists of two numbers that describe the friction resistance of pavement: speed constant (S P ) and friction number F(60).The general notation for IFI is IFI [F(60), S P ]. The GTA-4.003

number 60 in friction number F(60) denotes the test vehicle speed of 60 km/hr, though IFI can represent friction at different test speeds. The speed constant (S P ) is correlated with the result of a macro-texture measurement (Wambold et al., 1995)" (183) - but the results so far are not necessarily robust, see for example the conclusions of (185).

Other points about friction Road surface improvements alone do not necessarily improve safety and may make it worse (172) A driver making a journey should not expect to meet the same conditions of friction at all points along the journey. Most skid resistance problems, skid resistance testing, and nearly all of the literature relate to wet surface skid resistance (172) Engineers can design the pavements of sections of road so that they have higher than 'normal' values for friction. Higher values are useful at approaches to traffic signals and tight curves for example. Values for friction In Western European countries, the minimum permissible value of the friction coefficient ranges from 0.6 in Belgium to 0.4 in France (175 quoting Ren Fu-tian et al., 1993). Wallmann and Astrom (169) say " Roadway slipperiness was measured and divided into four categories of friction coefficients: good grip (f > Page 1

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A German source quotes values for friction for a PIARC tyre of 0,36 at 60 km/hr to 0,19 at 120 km/hr (177). New Zealand values quoted for "maximum design speed values of side friction for passenger cars on sealed roads" range from 0,33 at 60 km/hr to 0,11 at 120 km/hr (80). One problem when comparing values for friction from different sources is that you cannot be sure that you are comparing "like with like".

temperatures or different seasons of the year" (185) Drainage capacity Contamination Temperature Film thickness Chemical composition Pragmatic features, such as Factor of safety Approximation Simplification Other This is a catch-all term for a miscellaneous group of factors which include Season of year - "A significant variation has been observed in coefficient of friction values measured on the same pavement surfaces at different times of the year" (185) The method and equipment used to measure friction Type of road Vehicle speed - The skid resistance provided by a wet road surface decreases with increasing travel speed (172) Slip ratio Direction of measurement - transverse friction values may be different to longitudinal friction values) Type of vehicle - New Zealand quotes different values for friction for cars and for trucks (80)) References 80 - "State highway geometric design manual section 2: basic design criteria", New Zealand, Transit New Zealand 2003 169 - Wallman & strm, "Friction measurement methods and the correlation between road friction and traffic safety. A literature review", Sweden, VTI 2001

Factors affecting friction One source suggests that "In a friction measurement there are often three bodies involved, the measuring tyre, the road surface and some kind of contaminant interacting with both tyre and road like for example water (wet friction), dust or wear particles etc. (169). If we add two more headings ('pragmatic', and 'other') then the features affecting friction are:

The tyre Material Tread pattern Inflation pressure Load Temperature - research has indicated that tire pavement friction decreases if the tire temperature increases (180, quoting Hall et al 2009) The road surface Microtexture - at low travel speeds, surface aggregate microtexture is the primary contributor to skid resistance (see e.g. 172) Macrotexture - above 90 km/h, the macrotexture has been found to account for over 90 percent of the friction (184) Road surface material Age of road surface Road temperature - "Temperature effect on friction is the main parameter responsible for seasonal variations of friction measurements. Therefore, it is necessary to apply a temperature correction to friction measurements in order to perform comparisons between those at different GTA-4.003

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172 - McLean & Foley, "Road surface characteristics and condition: effects on road users", Australia, ARR 314 1998 177 - Weiss, Durth et al, "Strassenbau, Planung und Entwurf", Verlag fr Bauwesen, Germany 1997 180 - Flintsch et al, "The little book of tire pavement friction (version 1)", USA, Pavement surface properties consortium 2012 183 - Wu & King, "Development of surface friction guidelines for LADOTD", USA Louisiana State University, 2012 184 - Andresen & Warmbold, "Friction fundamentals, concepts and methodology", Canada, Transport Canada 1999 185 - Fuentes, "Investigation of the factors influencing skid resistance and the international friction index", USA, University of South Florida, 2009

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Cover notes and Disclaimer
This is a research document. The best efforts have been made to make sure the figures are correct. However no liability can be taken for any of the details, information or analysis in this document. The layout, look and feel of this document is copyright. The photos are generally copyright of REB. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/

Global Transport Atlas Series 4- Comparative Geometrics

History and Change log

Version 403.01-a (December 2012) - first version gta-4.003 (January 2013) - document number updated

GTA documents series Global Transport Atlas is a project with two aims. One is
to encourage people around the world to share examples of how they actually use transport in their daily lives. The other is to compare and improve the design of transport infrastructure. There are the following GTA document series: Series 1 - global transport notes A collection of papers on transport infrastructure and vehicles from various countries, prepared by various authors and contributors. Typical size 2 to 3 pages. Series 3 - discussion papers Papers with arguments and ideas on different aspects of modern transport and transport infrastructure. Series 4 - comparative geometrics Working papers which look at different aspects of highway infrastructure design and compare values from different countries. Series 7 - Dimensions of vehicles Transport infrastructure has to be defined with an idea of the size and types of vehicle which will use it. This series looks into the dimensions of different types of vehicle at different periods of time. Papers include technical discussion notes and example dimensions. Typical size 20 pages and more.

About the contributor

Robert Bartlett, Germany - is an experienced transportation and urban development studies engineer with over 25 years of professional experience. Current engineering work: includes technical research in highway design standards and applications in areas such as urban planning and highway engineering. Interests include applied GIS.

Contact
We welcome comments on this paper, and also on new developments in other countries in this field. Email: global.transport.atlas@gmail.com Web: http://globaltransportatlas.weebly.com/index.html

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