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Since the early study by Grosch in 1963 it has been known that rubber friction shows generally two maxima with respect to speed - the first one attributed to adhesion, and another at higher velocities attributed to viscoelastic losses. The theory of Klüppel and Heinrich and that of Persson suggests that viscoelastic losses crucially depend on the “multiscale” aspect of roughness and in particular on truncation at fine scales. In this study, we comment a little on both theories, giving some examples using Persson’s theory on the uncertainties involved in the truncation of the roughness spectrum. It is shown how different choices of Persson’s model parameters, for example the high-frequency cutoff, equally fit experimental data on viscoelastic friction, hence it is unclear how to rigorously separate the adhesive and the viscoelastic contributions from experiments.

The target of the activities described in the PhD thesis, fixed in collaboration with a motorsport racing team, with a high performance vehicle manufacturing company and with a tyre research and development technical centre is the development of a procedure able to estimate tyre interaction characteristics, reproducing them in simulation environments taking into account the fundamental friction and thermal phenomena concerning with tyre/road interaction. A first tool, called TRICK, has been developed with the aim to process data acquired from experimental test sessions, estimating tyre interaction forces and slip indices. Once characterized the vehicle, filtering and sensors output correction techniques have been employed on the available data, creating a robust procedure able to generate as an output a "virtual telemetry" and, following a specifically defined track driving routine, to provide tyre interaction experimental curves. TRICK virtual telemetry can be employed as an input for the second tool, TRIP-ID, developed with the aim to identify the parameters of a Pacejka Magic Formula tyre model. The advantage of this kind of procedure is the possibility to simulate the behaviour of a tyre without the bench characterizations provided by tyremakers, with the further benefit to reproduce the real interactions with road and the phenomena involved with it, commonly neglected in bench data. Among such phenomena, one of the most important is surely the effect that temperature induces on tyre performances, especially in racing applications. For this reason a specific model, called TRT, has been realized and characterized by means of proper thermodynamic tests, becoming a fundamental instrument for the simulation of a tyre behaviour as close to reality as possible. One of the most useful features provided by the model is the prediction of the so called "bulk temperature", recognized as directly linked with the tyre frictional performances. With the aim to analyse and unde