Evaluation of the structure-induced rolling resistance (SRR) for pavements including viscoelastic material layers

Abstract

This article addresses the question of whether the viscoelastic behavior of asphalt pavements, as part of the factors that impact the rolling resistance, might lead to substantially higher energy consumption of road traffic, as compared to non-dissipative pavements. In the context of sustainable development (fuel consumption, gas emission), this is a current issue for the pavement design community. This problem is tackled by a theoretical approach which consists in computing the Structure-induced Rolling Resistance (SRR) for a vehicle by using the mechanical response of a layered viscoelastic medium excited by moving loads (i.e. tires of the vehicle). The structure-induced power dissipation is shown to be proportional to the integral over contours of the applied loads of the pavement deflection, times the outward normal to these contours. Following the developed approach, the determination of the SRR force engendered by the structure-induced dissipation is obtained from the computation of the deflection of the viscoelastic pavement to an assumed pressure distribution. Such an approach applied to a thick asphalt pavement allows the SRR for a typical road structure to be evaluated as a function of temperature and speed. A non-dimensional analysis is also presented to extend the results to some other contexts. Under the assumptions made for the derivation of the SRR, the main conclusion of the case study is that the extra fuel consumption for a vehicle resulting from the viscoelastic behavior of asphalt pavements is small.

Method for Direct Measurement of Structural Rolling Resistance for Heavy Vehicles

“…A set of data from a test road was investigated and the values of C SRR found by this method span from 0:005 % to 0:05 %, which are modest values compared with typical tire rolling resistance coefficients that are in the range 0.5% to 1%. The values are slightly lower than those found in empirical and numerical studies on the subject (9)(10)(11)15). The data were divided into three groups based on how much of the deflection slope maximum was resolved by the TSD sensors.…”

“…This means that the tire always will be on an uphill slope ( ∂ z ( x = 0 ) ∂ x > 0 ), (see Figure 1 b ) and thus has to do work in order to maintain a constant driving speed ( 7 ). Using this uphill slope notion, the SRR can be calculated directly from the asymmetric deflection basin ( 1 , 8 , 9 ). Deflection of a structure subject to a moving load has been reported in the literature since the 1960s; for example, in ( 7 ), the viscoelastic response of a Kelvin beam is analyzed, and the viscoelastic effects reported to manifest themselves through an asymmetric deflection basin.…”

Effect of Pavement-Vehicle Interaction on Highway Fuel Consumption and Emission

“…The main section of the ANCOVA results are presented in Results also indicate that IRI and PT also have significant effect on fuel consumption (pvalue all less than 0.05), which agrees with the findings of past studies ( (Chatti & Zaabar, 2012), (Hultqvist, 2010), (Chupin, et al, 2013)). …”

Tire/Road Rolling Resistance Modeling: Discussing the Surface Macrotexture Effect

“…Regarding another aspect of vehicles and, in particular, the contact of their tires on roads, huge efforts have been made by tire manufacturers to reduce their rolling resistance as much as possible without reducing their efficiency in terms of skid resistance and rolling noise [5]. Regarding another aspect of roads, even if substantial effort is made in the design of road structures to minimize their contribution to rolling resistance, the effect of the surface texture, in particular the macrotexture, on this rolling resistance remains largely unknown [6,7].…”