Publications Repository - Gdańsk University of Technology

Rolling resistance of tires is one of the most important factors influencing energy consumption of road vehicles, especially on rural roads. For practical reasons, most of rolling resistance measurements are usually performed for dry road conditions. Based on the fact that roads are wet during a considerable time over the year and as part of the projects MIRIAM, ROLRES and ROSANNE, the TUG (Technical University of Gdańsk) in Poland and VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute) in Sweden carried out trailer rolling resistance measurements on wet road surfaces to investigate water film influence on rolling resistance on different pavements. A specially-designed trailer to measure rolling resistance has been used. The test sections were both rural roads and an abandoned airfield equipped with water film sensors mounted in the pavement. Results indicate strong influence of test speed and water film depth, as well as influence of surface texture. The increase of rolling resistance on wet surfaces is caused by both hydrodynamic phenomena and cooling effect of water that decreases tire temperature thus increasing rolling resistance.

Authors

• prof. dr hab. inż. Jerzy Ejsmont link open in new tab ,
• Leif Sjogren,
• dr hab. inż. Beata Świeczko-Żurek link open in new tab ,
• dr hab. inż. Grzegorz Ronowski link open in new tab