16th IFAC Symposium on Automation in Mining, Mineral

and Metal Processing

August 25-28, 2013. San Diego, California, USA

Predicting Wear and Temperature

of Autonomous Haulage Truck Tires
John Meech*. Juliana Parreira**.

The University of British Columbia, Department of Mining Engineering,

6350 Stores Road, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z4, Canada.
* (e-mail: (cerm3dir@mining.ubc.ca)
** (e-mail: jpareng@hotmail.com)

Abstract: Driverless haulage trucks have recently been developed for open pit mines. To predict the
benefits of an Autonomous Haulage Truck (AHT) system, a deterministic/stochastic model has been
created to compare an AHT fleet with a manual system by estimaing benchmarked Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) such as productivity, safety, breakdown frequencies, maintenance and labor costs, fuel
consumption, tire wear, and cycle times. The goal of this paper is to describe the sub-model developed to
predict tire wear of an AHT that functions within a virtual 24/7 open pit mine operating with 9 trucks and
2 shovels to move ore to a crusher and waste rock to a dump.
Keywords: Autonomous Haulage Trucks, tire wear, tire temperature, simulation, modeling.

1. INTRODUCTION tire failure. As tire temperature increases, rubber loses

Truck tires impact mine haulage economics significantly and
can represent as much as 20% of operating costs and more
than the initial capital purchase of the truck over the life of
machine (Bauer, 2012). Wear depends on a variety of factors
such as driver skills, climate conditions, maintenance, etc.
Proper tire selection: tire size, tread design, tire material,
carcass design, as well as good maintenance are all important
attributes. The model developed in this paper assumes use of
typical CAT 793D tires - 40.00R57.
Grosch(1992) states that tire wear is largely caused by fatigue
as the sidewalls flex back and forth with truck movement.
Wear occurs in three major ways in which the intrinsic
factors of load, velocity, and tire temperature interact across
all of the following mechanisms: abrasion (erosion); cutting
and impact; and ablation (Veith, 1992). Abrasion takes place
by attrition of rubber as the tire surface rubs against the road
surface. The roughness of the road surface affects this
mechanism substantially, but is reduced in wet weather.
Erosion is greatest with rocky surfaces and least with smooth
or sandy surfaces. Cutting and impact failures occur when a
tire runs over a large jagged rock at speed. This type of
failure can be catastrophic if a high tire temperature exists at
the time and generally results in a blown tire or an explosion.
Higher tire wear of an uneven nature occurs during cornering;
the more corners in the road and the longer the corner length,
the greater the tire wear due to side slip as the truck navigates
through the corner. Super-elevation of the road can eliminate
or minimize this effect by allowing vehicles to maintain
speed while cornering (Kennedy, 1990).
As a truck moves, heat is generated from contact with the
road surface and from flexing of the tire sidewalls. This heat
is generated faster than it dissipates into the atmosphere from
the rubber surfaces and will concentrate in the ply or belt. If
the tire is not able to cool back-down, excess heat can cause
strength and tires may experience failure during cornering or
braking; from impact or cutting from rocks on the road; from
fatigue of the steel belts; and from separation of the belts
from the rubber. At temperatures above about 93°C, a tire is
more susceptible to failure by impacts, cuts, and fatigue. At
temperatures above 132°C, rubber reversion (devulcanizing)
occurs and separation and splitting takes place. Heat
generation in a tire depends on (Caterpillar Handbook, 2007):
x weight that a tire is carrying;
x travel speed;
x ambient air temperature.
A number of tire wear metrics can be reported:
x Tread depth in mm;
x Tire wear rate in mm/10,000 km;
x Tire wear rate in mm/10,000 tonnes;
x Tire wear rate in mm/tonne/10,000 km;
x Tire life in months or days or hours;
x Tire life in total service hours or kilometers driven.
The most useful term for modelling purposes is mm/10,000
km while tire life in hours or kilometres driven is generally
used in practice. With a mine haulage truck, typical tire life
averages about 5,500 hours of operation at an average
velocity of 20 kph (15 kph loaded and 25 kph empty). With a
utilization of 60% of which about 90% involves actual
movement of the vehicle, haulage truck tires need to be
replaced after about 13 months. This can range from 8
months to 15 months depending on road conditions, truck
utilization and truck maintenance. Tire temperature affects
normal wear in a very negative way, typically on an
exponential basis. Cycle times with a significant idling
component (10-15%) can provide some temperature control
by allowing tires to cool down below points of danger.

978-3-902823-42-7/2013 © IFAC 142 10.3182/20130825-4-US-2038.00078

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Tire temperature increases due to friction of the tread with years, tire manufacturers have been rather secretive about
the road surface as well as the cyclic flexing of the sidewalls these relationships. Undoubtedly, considerable improvement
as the tire rotates. The higher the velocity, the faster that heat in tire construction and rubber compounds since 1928 has
enters the tire through the surface and sidewall flexing affected these relationships, but little sharing of the data in a
increases leading to over-heating. Temperature is affected by useful form has been forth-coming. Table 1 lists the Miller
both load and velocity, while the ambient temperature is tire data as reported. The units of wear were reported per
important in affecting the rate of cool-down (heat transfer 1,000 miles but the depth measurement unit was not given. It
from the tire to atmosphere). The rate of cool-down increases has been assumed the data are in mils/1,000 miles.
with temperature difference between the tire and the
atmosphere so as the atmosphere cools at night, the rate of Table 1. Data extracted from Miller Rubber Company.
heat transfer from a hot tire increases which can cause tire
temperature to decline rapidly. Original Data - Miller Rubber Company mil/1,000 miles
Temperature °F
With an AHT, the number of cycles per day should increase. Velocity ± mph
Currently at the selected mine used to validate this model, 40 60 80 100
each truck averages about 21 cycles per day (equivalent to a 0 0 0 0 0
daily production rate of about 4,520 tonnes). An AHT should 5 0.14 0.21 0.32 0.46
deliver about 26 loads per day - an increase of about 1,100 10 0.4 0.62 0.94 1.38
tonnes (~24%) of added production. The question is: "Does
this additional intense activity lead to higher tire temperatures 20 1.01 1.61 2.47 3.67
that impact negatively on tire wear?" Evidence to date 30 1.72 2.77 4.29 6.44
suggests that a lower velocity (14 kph loaded, 23 kph empty) 40 2.58 4.19 6.53 9.85
of an AHT relative to a manually-operated truck (15 kph 50 3.62 5.89 9.22 13.96
loaded, 25 kph empty) will compensate for the increased
55 4.21 6.87 10.74 16.28
activity (more operating time and less idling).
60 4.87 7.94 12.44 18.88
1.1 Manufacturer and User Methods to Control Temperature
*Load (weight of vehicle) assumed as 2268 kg (5,000 lb), i.e., 567 kg/ tire.
All tire manufacturers recommend that haul truck operators
maintain driving conditions below a rating term known as Fig. 1 shows the same data converted into SI units and re-
TMPH (or TKPH) assigned to each tire type. TMPH = Tons- plotted to show the equations for each temperature in a form
Mile-Per-Hour while TKPH is Tonnes-Kilometer-Per-Hour. that can be used to gain a better understanding of how a tire
The conventional TKPH calculation gives very little real wears as a function of velocity and temperature.
sense of the temperature conditions. It serves merely as an
alarm (Joseph, 2012). If drivers appear to be exceeding this
rating on a regular basis, the 5th gear on their vehicle may be
disabled to prevent excessive speed. The calculation can be
done automatically by a Vehicle Monitoring System, but
relies on data that may not be of high quality (time duration
issues) and it is rarely applied accurately in a dynamic way.
The use of tire temperature sensors is now becoming more
prevalent and will likely preclude this approach in the future.

2. MODEL APPROACH
2.1 Effect of Velocity and Temperature on Tire Wear Rate
The heat transfer coefficient (H) between a tire and air at a
speed of 48 kph is generally accepted to be 57.12 W/mm2·K
(Yeow et al, 1977), (Schallamach, 1967). Some research
claims that H is dependent on velocity. In this work, it was
decided to ignore velocity effects on H since the cool-down
period during idling (i.e., zero velocity) is, perhaps, one of
the most important elements in the analysis. Other work has
considered different heat transfer coefficients for the
circumferential heat loss and for transfer of heat between the
wheel and the air inside the tire. These details have been
ignored as well.
The analysis begins with the "best" available data published
in the literature on the impact of velocity and temperature on
tire wear (tread depth) ± a 1928 report from the Miller
Rubber Company published in Popular Mechanics. Over the
Fig.1. Tread Wear Data converted to SI units as a function of
Temperature and Velocity as reported by the Miller Rubber
Company (Popular Mechanics, 1928).
The coefficients in the equations shown in Fig. 1 have been
analysed with respect to temperature using a thermodynamic-
kinetic approach. An Arrhenius equation has been applied to
each coefficient to represent the "activation energy" required
to wear rubber from a tire. This relationship is in Fig. 2.
As can be seen, correlation of these two equations is
extremely high with R2 values of 0.995 in both cases. The
combined derived equation for the Miller Rubber Company
data (after including the gas constant R (1.9859 cal/K·mol) is
given in Eq. 1:
Wear Rate = 21.699·V2·e-7,106/RT + 11,931·V·e-8,621/RT (1)

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The exponents in the two parts of Eq. 1 represent activation
energies required to wear rubber from a tire in two different
ways ± from energy that flows through the tire and from the
force exerted on the rubber-road interface. The coefficients
are measures of how energy used to drive a truck results in
increased wear (V2 is representative of energy) and how force
(or load) affects wear (V is representative of momentum).
Fig. 2. Coefficients of V2 and V in the Equations for Wear
Rate vs. Velocity as a function of Inverse Temperature (K).
What is interesting about this equation is that it represents
two temperature effects on tread wear rate: one term that
depends on energy (represented by velocity2); and a second
term that depends on momentum or force (represented by
velocity). This suggests two wear mechanisms are inherently
embedded within the data. The part due to momentum is
likely an ablation mechanism in which rubber volatilizes as
temperature increases with load (tire pressure and weight),
while the other part is due to energy flow through the tires,
part of which abrades particles off the surface. The strength
of rubber declines as temperature increases, hence tire wear
rate by abrasion also increases with increasing temperatures.
Szibel et al (1969) stated that when temperature changes from
30o C to 60o C, the wear rate can increase by up to 50 times.
This is explained by molecular-kinetic theory in which
abrasion occurs due to failure of chemical bonds because of
fluctuations in thermal motion of molecules. On the other
hand, as velocity increases at constant temperature, the
relative contribution of momentum on total wear declines. So
the impact of ablation increases to a greater extent with a
temperature increase than with a velocity increase while the
impact of abrasion increases less with a temperature increase
than with a velocity increase. It must be remembered
however, that tire temperature is linked to velocity and load
such that as a truck speeds up, the temperature also rises.
Fig. 3 shows the predicted wear rate as a function of
temperature and velocity over the range of interest in open pit
mining (from 0 to 30 kph and from 5 to 95 °C). The upper
temperature represents tire conditions from which most mines
try to keep well away. The model shows that tires wear
mainly because of the momentum term. As temperature
increases at a constant velocity, the load on the tire leads to
an increased contribution to tire wear.
144
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3. Model Prediction of Tire Wear as a function of
(a) temperature and (b) velocity.
2.2 Effect of Load on Tire Wear Rate
The literature contains limited data on the influence of load
on tire wear rate. Much of the data deals with the importance
of tire pressure to balance-off the load. Both under- and over-
inflation leads to increased wear likely due to higher
operating temperatures in the case of over-inflation and
reduced tire circumference in the case of under-inflation. The
relationship is reported as linear, but depends on interactions
with temperature and velocity according to many reports.
The weight of a 1928 vehicle is estimated to be 2,268 kg on 4
tires. So the load on each tire is estimated at 567 kg. The road
surface contact area of a Miller Rubber Company tire is
estimated to be 232 cm2 (~6" x ~6"), so the tire load
(pressure) on this surface is 2.44 kg/cm2.The weight of an
empty and fully-loaded CAT793D truck varies from 180 t to
400 t respectively distributed on 6 tires. So the load on each
tire varies between 30 and 67 tonnes.
Taking into account the reported weight distribution of 40:60
(front:back) when full and 45:55 (front:back) when empty,
the load can be as high as 80 tonnes on the front tires. The
surface contact area of a CAT793D truck is 15,000 cm2
(~100 cm x ~150 cm), so the load (pressure) varies between
2.00 and 5.00 kg/cm2. Note that this range overlaps with that
calculated for the Miller Rubber Company analysis. So the
ratio of tire wear rate between a regular automobile tire and a
CAT793D tire due to changing load (pressure) characteristics
will vary from 0.82 to 2.05.
A second factor to be considered is the influence of tire
diameter. The difference in the number of times per kilometre
IFAC MMM 2013
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that an element of the tire surface meets the road is
significant. For the Miller data, the tire diameter is estimated
at 0.67 m, so the circumference is approximately 2 m. A
CAT793D tire has a diameter of 3.7 m, so its circumference
is 11.6 m. For a travelled distance of 1 km, a regular tire
revolves 500 times while a CAT793D tire revolves 86 times.
So for each kilometre travelled, a tire element on a regular
vehicle meets the road surface 5.8 times more than that of a
tire element on a CAT793D truck. Countering this lower
contact frequency is the fact that the element is in contact for
a greater distance with a CAT793D tire than for a regular tire.
This contact percentage is 7.27% of the circumference for a
regular tire and 12.89% for a CAT793D truck tire, i.e., about
1.77 times more contact per revolution. This yields a ratio of
0.305 (1.77/5.8) for the CAT tire compared to a regular tire.
However, the CAT tire is much wider than a regular tire so
that must be accounted for as well. A CAT tire is 1 m in
width compared to a width of ~0.25 m on a regular tire. So
the ratio of tire element contact is 1.22 (0.305/0.25) for the
CAT tire compared to a regular tire.
Road surface conditions should also be taken into account.
The Miller Rubber company measurements were for an
asphalt road which is smooth and with few discontinuities. A
mine haulage road consists of rocks of varying sizes that
presents a much rougher surface that will impact negatively
on tire wear rate. Maintenance of the road surface through
grading and watering can help maintain a more consistent
surface (and perhaps a slightly reduced wearing surface) but
tread wear on a mine haulage road compared to an asphalt
surface is estimated to be 10 to 15 times higher.
In analysing the Miller Company data, the load is assumed to
be 567 kg per tire. Eq. 1 can be used to determine the wear
rate and the ratio of the impact factors can be used to scale
the data to a CAT793D. Velocity represents Energy and
Momentum as follows:
Energy = (Load x Velocity2)/2 (2)
Momentum = (Load x Velocity) (3)
Wear at 15 kph and 45 °C = 0.274 mm/10,000 km distributed
as 0.063 and 0.211 between energy and force.
Wear at 25 kph and 45 °C = 0.528 mm/10,000 km distributed
as 0.176 and 0.352 between energy and force.
Miller Load = 567/232 = 2.44 kg/cm2.
CAT793D Load (full) = 400,000/(6x15,000) = 4.44 kg/cm2,
so load ratio is 4.44/2.44 = 1.82.
CAT793D Load (empty) = 180,000/(6x15,000) = 2.00 kg/cm2,
so load ratio is 2.00/2.44 = 0.82.
For a CAT793D, tire wear rates will be as follows:
Travelling fully-loaded at 15 kph and 45 °C =
0.274*1.82*1.22*12.5 = 7.61 mm/10,000 km.
Travelling empty at 25 kph and 45 °C =
0.528*0.82*1.22*12.5 = 6.69 mm/10,000 km.
145
The average travel velocity is 20 kph and the typical tire life
to scrap is 5,500 hours. This is equivalent to a service travel
distance of 110,000 km. For this distance, tire wear at 15 kph
and fully-loaded is 83.7 mm while at 25 kph and empty, it
equals 73.6 mm. The overall average is 78.7 mm. Current
average final depth of wear of scrapped tires at the selected
mine is reported to be 72 mm (97 (new) ± 25 (scrapped)). The
prediction is remarkably close to the actual data.
Other factors that should be taken into account are the road
and tire rolling resistance. Since the analysis deals with a
"dirt" road, the frequency of trucks passing over the surface,
together with maintenance practices (grading and watering),
will affect the rolling resistance on a daily basis. Rolling
resistance variation at the selected mine falls between 2.5 to
3.5 %, which affects the energy required to drive the truck
and indirectly may cause changes in tire wear rates.
A study done by NHTSA (2009) with tires of 16 different
models with known rolling resistances and assumed traction
factors were subjected to dry and wet skid-trailer testing on
asphalt and concrete skid pads. The study could not find any
significant relationship between dry peak slide numbers and
rolling resistance. However, these tires showed a strong and
significant relationship between better rolling resistance and
poor wet slide numbers. For the subset of 5 tire models
subjected to on-vehicle tread wear testing, no clear
relationship was found between wear rate and rolling
resistance. For a subset of 6 tire models, the study showed
significant amounts of wear in the indoor tread wear tests,
with a trend toward higher wear for tires with low rolling
resistance. The current model in this research does not reflect
these dynamic changes, but this could be included through
additional studies.
2.3 Effect of Load and Velocity on Tire Temperature
Tire temperature will increase as a tire moves along a road
surface. Heat enters the tire through the contact surface with
the road and from the flexing of the tire sidewalls as the tire
rotates. The heat generated is a function of the energy that
flows through each tire which is a function of the weight of
the vehicle and its speed as follows:
Total Energyin = (Mass x Velocity2)/2 (4)
Heat is lost from the tire through its sidewalls and
circumferential surface to the surrounding air. This heat
transfer occurs regardless of whether the truck is moving.
The drop in temperature due to heat loss to the atmosphere is
calculated as follows:
û7d = (Tatm ± Ttire)·e-kdt (5)
where û7d = temperature decline during the time step (°C)
Tatm = temperature of the atmosphere ± current (°C)
Ttire = temperature of the tire ± current (°C)
kd = heat transfer coefficient (1.6 x 10-4)
t = time (seconds)
The equation to calculate temperature increase due to load
and velocity is:
û7i = KT(1 ± e-kit) ± û7d (6)
where û7i = temperature increase during the time step (°C)
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KT = 8.344 x 10-3(P+GVW)V Fig. 6 shows what can happen when truck velocities are
Ki = 6.836 x 10-7(P+GVW)V2 increased to 19 and 38 kph for loaded and empty conditions
t = time (seconds) respectively. Although the rise in temperature initially is
û7d = temperature decline during the time step (°C) lower, the system is unstable with the temperature continuing
P = payload (tonnes) to rise well above the danger point of 90 ºC after 9 cycles.
V = velocity (kph) Clearly, this truck will require a cool-down period.
GVW = gross vehicle weight including fuel (tonnes)
Saibel et al (1973) show that heat generation on automobile
tires have significant effects on both temperature distibution
and wear. In this study, the tire temperature of a trailer
travelling at 30 mph was measured at stopping places about 8
miles apart. Surface temperatures were measured within a
minute after stopping the trailer. The results show tire surface
temperature rises exponetially during travel achieving a
steady state temperature at the end of eight miles of travel.
One minute after stopping, the tire surface temperature began
decreasing exponentially as well from its maximum value. Fig.5. Effect of Idling Time on Tire Temperature Change
Fig. 4 depicts the dynamic temperature increase of a during the haulage cycle. Total idling time = 5 min. (14.7%).
CAT793D truck moving at a velocity of 16 kph with a full
payload of 220 tonnes (GVW = 180 tonnes) and the
temperature decline that occurs when the truck is idling
(motionless) for an atmospheric temperature of 35 °C. As can
be seen the temperature while travelling increases to a steady-
state value of 75 °C after a time interval of about one hour.
The time to decline from this value back down to ambient
conditions is a bit longer at about 90 minutes.

Fig.6. Unstable Situation. Tire temperature does not reach

Fig.4. Effects of velocity and load on tire temperature.
For tire cool-down, the change in temperature is determined
by the difference between atmospheric and tire temperature.
Two parameters affect heat gain ± load and velocity. One
coefficient (ki) relates to energy (Load x Velocity2) used to
drive the truck while the other term (KT) relates to the force
acting on the tire expressed as a momentum term (Load x
Velocity). The blue data points refer to tire temperature while
driving under fully-loaded conditions. The green data shows
the cool-down occurring when a "hot" tire is in an idling
state. The cool-down parameter (kd) is equivalent to the heat
transfer coefficient between the tire surface and the air.
Fig. 5 shows the model predictions of how a tire heats and
cools under continuous cycle time operation. Fig. 5 shows
that when idling time represents about 15% of total cycle
time, a steady state temperature of 61 ºC is reached. Other
tests show that when the idling time is about 10% of total
cycle time, the steady state temperature may rise to 80 ºC.
steady state and continues increasing over a number of cycles
leading to excessive tire wear and potential failure.
2.4 Using the Model ± Inputs
To apply this model, three inputs are required to calibrate for
any specific mine site ± maximum velocity; maximum load,
and maximum tread wear rate (mm/10,000 km) at these
maximum values. This last element can be determined from
an examination of tire life data at a mine site. For example, at
the selected mine, the average tire life is about 5,500
operating hours. With an average cycle traveling speed of 20
kph [(13 kph + 27 kph)/2] which also includes idling time,
this is equivalent to a traveling distance of 110,000 km. The
average tread wear depth is 72 mm (97mm ± 25mm), so this
gives a theoretical tire wear rate of 6.82 mm/10,000 km.
However, in examining the tire life data in more detsil, it was
discovered that about 12% of all tires at the selected mine are
scraped after significantly lower operating times because of
blow-outs or failed sidewalls, possibly due to excessive
temperatures. Discounting these tires from the analysis is
important since the model is aimed at estimating normal
wear, not unplanned failures. Assuming an average service
life of about 3,000 hours for these tires, the true average
operating time is 5,841 hours. Actual driving time is about
88% of this value, so 5,100 hours of actual driving takes
place. This translates to an average distance travelled of just
over 100,000 hours. So the true average tread wear rate at the
selected mine is 7.5 mm/10,000 km.

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The range of wear rates for a CAT793D tire is 2.5 from

lowest to highest. The range in wear rates in Eq. 6 based on
velocity variations from 15 to 30 kph for the same load
shows a value of 2.64. For this range of variation and an
average condition of 7.5 mm, the maximum tire wear rate at
the selected mine is estimated to be 10.9 mm/10,000 km.
Reported results showed about 10 mm/10,000 km.
The calibration data is input to a Fuzzy Logic-based model of
tire wear as a function of payload and velocity. The model
uses a rule-base that defines fuzzy sets for wear rate: zero,
low, moderately-low, moderate, moderately-high, high, and
very high together with fuzzy sets to describe payload: zero, Fig. 7. Tire Wear vs. Payload at Different Velocities.
low, design, high, and excessive as well as fuzzy sets that Defuzzification Method = Accumulation.
describe velocity as zero, slow, moderate, fast, and very-fast. Calibration: Max. Speed = 40 kph; Max. Payload =
400 t; Max. Tire Wear = 10 mm / 10,000 km.
Every time a driver arrives at a load or unloaded area, tire
wear is calculated. The new tire depth is determined by
4. CONCLUSION
subtracting actual tire wear from the previous tire depth. Note
that this point the model does not distinguish rear/front and The model uses fuzzy logic to correlate tire wear to truck
external/ internal wear. When tire thread reaches 25 mm, the velocity and payload. The model can be calibrated to reflect
tire must be replaced and when replaced, the tire tread is reset known operating conditions at any specific mine site and can
to 97 mm. Tire rotation is also not considered in this model. be adjusted throughout the life of a set of tires to reflect the
current tire conditions on a truck. Dynamic tire temperature
Table 2. Fuzzy rule-base used to predict wear rate changes are predicted in the model when hauling and idling.
from Velocity and Payload. Many mines use the tire supplier TKPH model to reduce tire
failures and avoid overheating tires during operation. Using
Speed
Payload this model can provide additional knowledge to produce a
Very-
Zero Slow Moderate Fast
Fast
reliable and practical constraint beyond which a truck must
stop to allow tires to cool-down or the truck is reassigned to a
Zero Zero Zero Low Mod-Low Moderate
different haulage route and restricted to 4th gear.
Low Zero Low Mod-Low Moderate Mod-High

Design Zero Mod-Low Moderate Mod-High High REFERENCES

High Zero Moderate Mod-High High Very-High
Excessive Zero Mod-High High Very-High Very-High
The system output using the accumulation method of
Defuzzification is shown in Fig. 7. This 2-D plot shows wear
rate as a function of Payload (as % of maximum) for different
velocities running from zero to maximum. The two areas
shown in the diagram represent the types of wear conditions
for travelling empty and for travelling fully-loaded. Note that
the travel empty region shows a slightly higher wear rate than
the travel loaded region since velocity has a greater impact on
tire wear than does payload.
3. RESULTS
The model is based on simulation of 28-day work periods.
The manual and AHT models were run 3 times for each test
condition to establish a measure of the variance. Looking at
the project baseline, AHT tire wear was improved of 8% over
the manual fleet. This is a conservative estimate since the
model only considers human driver characteristics to define
truck movement (Meech, 2011). Additional improvement is
expected from implementation of specific road maintenance
infrastructure changes with an AHS project. The results show
that the effect of temperature on tires increases tire wear by
15% over a complete cycle. These results are for an ambient
temperature of 35 °C in accord with the selected mine.
Different climate conditions will give different results.
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