Development of correlation equations between different measurements of skid resistance in pavements

Abstract

Friction is an indicator of the safety level supplied by a pavement. It is obtained by skid resistance and texture measures performed with static and high performance devices. Because the physical principle applied by each equipment differs form one another, it is necessary to harmonize measures in order to compare them. From literature review different harmonization procedures were identified: equipment direct correlation, high scale harmonization experiments and statistical analysis of skid resistance measures. Harmonization based on direct correlations and statistical analysis has the disadvantage that they do not consider texture as a variable, making them applicable only under certain conditions. In this research a harmonization methodology is proposed based on the PIARC (the World Road Association) harmonization procedure. The proposed methodology has the advantage that a reduced amount of data is needed and that texture measures are considered. From the application of the methodology under data simulation it was concluded that under a certain texture range the correlations is almost linear. This range depends on the texture measurement device, as when using accurate equipments non linear distortions are deduced under low texture levels.