PURPOSES : The purpose of this study was to identify the availability of Grip-Tester, which can be used as continuous friction testers, for estimating the skid resistance of pavements by examining its basic performance.
METHODS : Based on a literature review, various factors influencing skid resistance on road surfaces were described, and the subject to be evaluated were proposed. Friction tests were conducted at various operating speeds to assess the water supply performance, repeatability, and reproducibility of the measurement results. Both the British pendulum number (BPN) and mean texture depth (MTD) were examined to confirm the relationship between the Grip Number(GN) and surface texture.
RESULTS : The results of the watering test indicate that more than 91% of valid measurements can be obtained at the maximum operating speed of 90 km/h to maintain a water film thickness of 0.25 mm. The repeatability and reproducibility of the measured GN were derived from the cross-correlation analyses to be 90.9% and 87.4%, respectively. It was found that the variations in GN values according to operating speeds follow an exponential model similar to the commonly known Penn State model, which can be considered to be due to the effect of texture on skid resistance.
CONCLUSIONS : The grip tester is suitable for continuously surveying the skid resistance because GN datasets are reliable at variable operating speeds and correlate with the surface texture. This method may provide objective data for making decisions regarding the maintenance of skid resistance through periodic full-scale investigations with the tester in the future.