Reliability and Performance of Friction Measuring Tires and Friction Equipment Correlation

This report contains the description and results of a test program conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration FAA at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Wallops Flight Facility WFF located at Wallops Island, Virginia. The field tests were conducted in August 1989. The purpose of the test program was twofold 1 to establish the reliability, performance and consistency of friction measuring tires used by qualified friction devices and 2 select the best performing tires for friction equipment correlation for maintenance purposes. Four friction devices were used with their self wetting systems on five types of pavement surfaces. Tests were conducted at speeds of 40 and 60 mph 65 and 95 kmh. A total of 1, 643 test runs were conducted, which resulted in 2,725 data points. 156 regression analyses were performed for the tire performance evaluation and 31 regression analyses for friction equipment correlation. The results showed that the McCreary tire performed best on the Saab Friction Tester SFT, Runway Friction Tester RFT and Skiddometer SKD. The Dico Tire performed the best on the Mu Meter MUM. The tire composition given in ASTM E 524 for the McCreary tire will be included in a new ASTM specification that will have the same tire dimensions given in ASTM E 630. The DICO tire will be included in the ASTM E 670 specification. SDW