Exploring the texture–friction relationship: from texture empirical decomposition to pavement friction

This paper investigates the pavement friction–texture relationship, using a decomposition method of the pavement texture that is part of a new signal processing technique called ‘Hilbert–Huang transform’ to develop a texture parameters–friction relation. This method allows the empirical decomposition of the texture profile to a set of basic profiles in a limited number, called ‘intrinsic mode functions’ or IMFs. From the obtained IMFs, a set of four new functions called ‘base intrinsic mode functions’ or BIMFs, are introduced and are characterised from the density and sharpness of the peaks contained in the individual BIMFs. Then these two parameters are correlated with the pavement friction using different combinations. This procedure is applied to a set of texture and friction data measured through test roads in France. The textures and frictions are measured using, respectively, the Circular Texture Meter and the Dynamic Friction Tester in France and also on a number of test sites in the USA. The obtained results show a good correlation between some of the BIMF parameters (density and sharpness) and friction.