LAUSR

Abstract Tire rolling resistance is one of the most difficult tire parameters to measure. The reason is that for modern tires the force of rolling resistance corresponds to 0.5–1% of tire load, thus measurements of very small forces must be performed in a heavily loaded system. This constitutes great problems, especially in road conditions. Laboratory measurements are easier to perform, as the environment may be better controlled, but roadwheel facilities based on outer drums, in general cannot be equipped with real road pavements. Typically they have steel drums or drums covered by replicas at best. This article describes a laboratory method of rolling resistance evaluation that may be used in preliminary assessment of road pavements (based on small pavement samples) and tires. The method is based on impact induced tire oscillations and gives good ranking of tires and road pavements related to the energy losses that control rolling resistance.