Engineered surfaces for laboratory tread wear testing of tires

A tread wear apparatus for testing tread wear of a tire, comprising:

• a road wheel;
• a substantially rigid hardened wear surface disposed on the road wheel, the wear surface comprising an adhesive mixed with at least one aggregate and configured for hardening and being imprinted with a negative cast of a road surface on which tread wear of the tire is to be tested, wherein the adhesive is coated onto the road wheel and a positive impression of the road surface is imprinted into a layer of the adhesive with the negative cast of the road surface when the adhesive is unhardened,
• wherein the substantially rigid hardened wear surface is configured to capture a large-macro roughness of the road surface such that a contact area affecting contact stresses and local slippage within a contact region between the tire and the substantially rigid hardened wear surface substantially reproduces one or more surface roughness characteristics of the road surface;
• and
• at least one test wheel configured for having the tire mounted thereon and for being brought into contact with the wear surface of the road wheel for testing the tread wear.

A method of analyzing tread wear of a tire comprising:

• bringing a tire having a tread into contact with a tread wear testing apparatus for testing wear of the tread, the tread wear testing apparatus comprising a road wheel having a substantially rigid hardened wear surface disposed on the road wheel,
• wherein the wear surface comprises an adhesive mixed with at least one aggregate and configured for hardening and being imprinted with a negative cast of a road surface on which tread wear of the tire is to be tested,
• wherein the adhesive is coated onto the road wheel and a positive impression of the road surface is imprinted into a layer of the adhesive with the negative cast of the road surface when the adhesive is unhardened, and
• wherein the substantially rigid hardened wear surface is configured to capture a large-macro roughness of the road surface such that a contact area affecting contact stresses and local slippage within a contact region between the tire and the wear surface substantially reproduces one or more surface roughness characteristics of the road surface;
• applying forces to the tire via the tread wear testing apparatus to simulate a vehicle load;
• and
• generating tread wear test data for the tire for analyzing the tread wear.