Under snowy and icy conditions in winter, the traction of tires decreases significantly in comparison to dry or wet conditions with temperatures above the freezing point. Therefore the safety aspect is dominating the development of winter tires. The design and development of tires is strongly based on vehicle test results. The test season for outdoor winter testing is short and running multiple development loops can sometimes take several years. Demands for improvements in the efficiency of development phases and a faster time-to-market require the development of lab testing facilities as well as tire model simulation tools being available the whole year. In this context the major emphasis is to be placed on the comparability and transferability of results from lab tests to tire tests. In a close collaboration of Continental AG and the Institute of Dynamics and Vibration Research (IDS) of Leibniz Universitat Hannover the friction mechanisms of siped tread blocks were studied in detail. The physical mechanisms being effective in the contact between tire tread blocks and snowy and icy surfaces were investigated on the new high speed linear test rig. The present paper gives an overview of the test rig design and its experimental capabilities. Furthermore a new analytical model for simulating siped tread blocks is presented.
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