The Influence of Road Pavement Materials on Surface Texture and Friction

This article’s primary goal was to analyze the effect of texture on skid resistance. Surface texture was recorded with a revolutionary device designed to create 3D surface scans, the Static Road Scanner. The skid resistance was represented by a pendulum test value. Measurements were made on three different groups of surfaces. Reference surfaces with known standard grain sizes represented the first group. The second group consisted of specimens made from a different type of aggregate. The last group of surfaces consisted of asphalt specimens made from different sizes and types of aggregates used in a mixture. The test results shed some more light on understanding texture’s effect on surface friction. Although some results were expected, not all of them were proven. For instance, a high level of texture doesn’t necessarily mean high friction. A relatively strong relationship was found between friction and microtexture on the reference surfaces with grain sizes up to 125 µm. However, the relationships between texture and skid resistance on the aggregate and asphalt specimens turned out to be shallow for the investigated samples. For this reason, it was recommended to expand the number of investigated surfaces in further research to ensure sufficiently different levels of texture.