Predicting excess vehicle fuel use due to pavement structural response using field test results and finite element modelling

ABSTRACT

The importance of pavement–vehicle interaction on fuel use is potentially large enough to warrant further investigation. Ever-growing traffic volumes world-wide make rolling resistance in the pavement life-cycle important for all roads. Pavement structural response contributes to rolling resistance and excess fuel consumption by dissipating vehicle energy in the pavement, which can be modelled as material hysteresis or delayed surface displacement causing the tire to push against the side of the deflection bowl. In this study, a comprehensive numerical modelling factorial is developed to determine the response of pavement structures under a wide range of contributing factors with modelling of asphalt pavement energy dissipation due to the viscoelastic structural response. The modelling considered the material-induced dissipated energy under moving traffic using a quasi-dynamic procedure incorporating viscoelastic response and damping mechanisms. Using the developed FE models and Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) test results, the dissipated energy responses for several different conditions were numerically quantified for ten field sections. Dissipated energy outputs of 720 moving load models were used to develop three reliable regression models over a wide range of variables to predict dissipated energy response without the need to routinely perform the finite element simulations.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy dissipation
• fuel consumption
• numerical modelling
• finite element analysis
• moving load model

Acknowledgements

This report describes research activities that were requested and sponsored by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Division of Research, Innovation and System Information. Federal and State sponsorship and interest are gratefully acknowledged. The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Federal Highway Administration or the State of California. This report does not represent any standard or specification. The authors would like to thank Imen Zaabar and Karim Chatti from Michigan State University for conducting the FWD back-calculations and Deepak Maskey and Joe Holland of Caltrans for project oversight.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Analysis of variance.

Additional information

Funding

This report describes research activities that were requested and sponsored by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Division of Research, Innovation and System Information.