Unveiling the relationship between pavement surface texture and roughness and the energy loss of a tire: The rolling resistance in a battery electric vehicle

A significant portion of the energy used to propel a vehicle is dissipated as rolling resistance (RR) in the tire-road interaction. Largely due to the hysteretic losses resulting from the cyclical deformations of the tire's viscoelastic material as the tread engages with asperities of different wavelengths, RR depends on the tire and pavement surface characteristics. However, factors related to vehicle and ambient conditions also play a role. In particular, specifics of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) like the increased tire load and different torque performance compared to equivalent-sized internal combustion engine vehicles are expected to increase the RR and induced energy consumption. This paper investigates the relationship between the pavement surface characteristics and the RR in a passenger BEV. To this end, experimental measurements of the RR were performed in conditions close to real driving. They involved an instrumented BEV equipped with two dynamometric wheels acting as tribometers, driven on a test track featuring several asphalt pavement sections of diverse texture and roughness levels, and differing in age and wearing course. Standardized descriptors of these surface properties were then correlated with the corresponding measured RR coefficients. Different segmentation strategies were applied to derive the values of the metrics. The results (1) validate correlations previously observed in drum- and trailer-based measurements and (2) reveal how local variations in pavement surface characteristics influence RR. These findings may support road pavement managers in the design of pavement management strategies that potentialize the environmental benefits offered by passenger BEVs.