Comprehensive Study of the Performance of Winter Tires on Ice, Snow, and Asphalt Roads: The Influence of Tire Type and Wear

Abstract

ABSTRACT This work presents a comprehensive study of the performance of winter tires on snow, ice, and asphalt. A set of 77 different winter tires were carefully selected for the study. Of these, 27 were new and 50 were worn from real traffic use. All three tire types for winter conditions (Nordic, European, and studded) were represented. All tires have been tested using a mobile tire-testing device for snow and asphalt and using a stationary tire-testing facility for ice. Both devices recorded the tire forces and motions, enabling a close to complete stationary characterization of the tires. In addition, 42 of the tires were tested on a passenger car, where brake performance was evaluated for the three different road conditions. This enables a comparative study of performance between tire types and wear for various winter road conditions. The results suggest that the recorded data represent real vehicle performance. Some conclusions from the measurements are that the effect of wear is consistent between the tire groups and that the performance degradation is most noticeable on studded tires on ice and on European tires on snow.