Laboratory Abrasion Tester to Estimate Tyre Grip and Cornering Stiffness

Identification of tyre grip is crucial for ensuring safety and performance. To develop new tyres matching the requirements for grip, extensive testing is required both indoor and outdoor, which is time-consuming and costly. Therefore, the possibility to assess their performance in laboratory before manufacturing a full tyre appears very attractive. On this purpose, the present paper compares the peak of the friction coefficient, evaluated using a Laboratory Abrasion Tester (LAT100) on two compounds and the grip assessed through MTS Flat-Trac machine tests on two full tyres having the same structure and made of the compounds tested on the LAT100. An ad hoc procedure for driving the test on the LAT100 and make them comparable with the full-tyre data was developed. A good correlation was found for the dependency of the friction coefficient on temperature and load, highlighting the possibility of using LAT100 tests to gain information about tyre performance, before the manufacturing of the...