The TYROSAFE Project is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) in the Seventh EU Framework Programme and aims at coordinating and preparing for European harmonisation and optimisation of the assessment and management of essential tyre/road interaction
parameters to increase safety and support the greening of European road transport. TYROSAFE is focussed on three main road surface “properties”, as they are referred to in this report: skid resistance, rolling resistance or noise emission. These properties are governed by a number of individual factors (or values that describe them), referred to as “parameters” that relate to the construction or manufacture of road surfaces and tyres, or their component parts, which potentially act or interact to influence the three main properties.
The project is being carried out in a number of Work Packages (WP) and the objective of WP3, to which this report relates, was to describe the different parameters of road surfaces and tyres that are relevant to skid resistance, rolling resistance and noise emission, leading to a matrix that clarifies the interdependencies of the different factors.
At the outset of the TYROSAFE project, it was clear that road surfacings and tyres are currently developed independently of one another. In relation to the three particular surface properties on which the project concentrates this becomes especially obvious as roads are
developed without real thought to tyres and tyres are tested without reference to road surfacings in every-day use.
The main purpose of this report is to draw together what is known of the various parameters from many research projects, practical experience and discussions in expert workshops, to examine how the parameters interact with one another in different ways and at different
levels, with a view to optimising them in relation to the three surface properties.
Acting together, roads and tyres make a vital contribution to road safety but, as they do so, they have an impact on the environment. Interaction between the tyre and the road surface provides grip to allow vehicles to manoeuvre; the same process can also give rise to rolling resistance, with a potential increase in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, while the interactions generate noise both in vehicles and in areas close to the road.
Many parameters of road surfaces and tyres are involved in these interactions and they can affect one another adversely. For instance, in a road surfacing, something that improves skid resistance may result in higher rolling resistance or increased noise, and vice-versa. Other demands are placed on road surfacings (such as requiring a long working life in a wide range of environmental and traffic conditions) that must also be taken into account in their design. |
