Measuring rubber friction using a Laboratory Abrasion Tester (LAT100) to predict car tire dry ABS braking

Evaluating tire grip on the road, an extremely complicated tribological system, is enormously energy and time consuming but essential for safety. To predict grip on the road, tires with four different tread compounds were tested on ABS braking distance on a dry test track. Corresponding solid rubber wheels were characterized on the Laboratory Abrasion Tester (LAT100) on four different electro-corundum discs of various grain sizes. With increasing speed the side force coefficient (SFC) decreases. A lower disc grain size induces a higher SFC. A correlation coefficient of 0.93 between the LAT100 data and road results for the four tread compounds has a high potential for predicting the car tire ABS braking distance.