A microscale evaluation of pavement roughness effects for asset management

Abstract

In this paper, the authors present a method to automate data collection and mapping of pavement roughness on various functional classification roadways and to quantify fuel consumption for enhanced benefit-to-cost analysis, asset management and infrastructure investment strategies. A new low-cost and efficient technology is presented to measure and contrast vehicles' vertical accelerations over smooth and rough pavement sections. Fuel consumption is then correlated with the vehicle's vertical acceleration over both pavement conditions. The results of the study validate the relationship between acceleration/road roughness and fuel consumption. Finally, using the described technology, a pothole detection algorithm is devised to automatically map road roughness, a step towards a better asset management system.