Development of a highway traffic noise prediction model that considers various road surface types

A highway traffic noise prediction model has been developed for environmental assessment in South Korea. The model is based on an outdoor sound propagation method and is fully compliant with ISO 9613 and the sound power level (PWL) estimation for a road segment, as suggested in the ASJ Model-1998 that is based on PWLs. Due to that model’s selection of two pavement types, such as asphalt or concrete pavement, an unacceptable traffic noise prediction is made in cases where the road surface is different from that on which the model is based. In order to address this problem, several road surface types are categorized, and the PWL of each surface type is determined and modeled by measuring the noise levels obtained from newly developed methods. An evaluation of the traffic noise prediction model using field measurements finds good agreement between predicted and measured noise levels.     

土基模量随季节变化规律及其数值的确定

土基回弹模量作为路面设计的重要力学参数,在我国路面设计方法中选取最不利季节的土基回弹模量值作为土基的设计强度,没有考虑一年中含水量变化对土基强度的影响,本文通过分析土基回弹模量随季节含水量的变化规律,借鉴AASHTO设计方法中不同季节模量对路面造成的相对损伤思想,推导出等效回弹模量计算公式uf=0.95×10⁷E^-5d,提出用等效土基回弹模量值代替最不利季节模量值作为土基强度设计值,不仅能够提高土基自身的抗变形能力,还可以很有效的提高沥青路面结构的整体设计强度。     

Temperature effect on tyre-road noise

Tyre-road noise emission decreases when the outdoor temperature increases, with a variation that can exceed −0.1 dB(A)/°C. This effect depends on tyre-road combination, but semi-generic corrections can improve the accuracy of tyre-road noise measurements. In this paper, the variation of pass-by noise level of a passenger car at 90 km/h with temperature is investigated, on seven types of road surfaces, under different temperature conditions. A good correlation between air, road surface and tyre temperature is outlined. A linear relationship between noise level and air temperature variations is observed for bituminous pavements, of about −0.1 dB(A)/°C, but reduced to −0.06 dB(A)/°C for pavements having porosity. No temperature effect is observed on cement concrete pavements. A spectral analysis shows that the temperature effect is highest in low and high frequency range, what can be explained by generating mechanisms rather than propagation.     

The effects of pavement surface characteristics on tire/pavement noise

Pavement surface characteristics are major attributes to tire/pavement interactions and are considered as cost-effective options to mitigate traffic noise. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effects of single and multiple pavement surface characteristics on tire/pavement noise levels. During the period from August 2009 to August 2011, noise levels and pavement surface characteristics are measured quarterly on impervious and open-graded asphalt pavements at 2009 NCAT test track. The linear regression analysis method and dominance analysis method are used to evaluate the effects of single and multiple pavement surface characteristics on noise levels, respectively. The results show that surface texture increases noise levels at lower frequencies (below 1600 Hz) especially on impervious asphalt pavements. Porosity decreases noise levels at every frequency (except at 2500 Hz) on open-graded asphalt pavements. These findings will help to design future low-noise asphalt pavements.     

Resource-constrained management of heterogeneous assets with stochastic deterioration

We consider a collection of heterogeneous assets which exhibit independent stochastic behavior, but are economically interdependent due to resource constraints on management decisions. We represent the collection of assets as a network of nonhomogeneous Markov decision processes linked by side constraints. To facilitate a procedure for obtaining nonrandomized decision policies, we express the resource limitations as integrated chance constraints and relax them into the objective function within a Lagrangian penalty term. We utilize subgradient optimization to establish upper bounds and a greedy randomized Lagrangian repair heuristic to obtain feasible solutions. We empirically validate the tightness of these a posteriori upper and lower bounds with computational experiments on a pair of applications. For pavement maintenance, we examine the effect that the reward structure of each constituent MDP has on the maintenance policy in the presence of budget constraints. For equipment replacement, we consider constraints on two resource types.     

2-D finite element analysis of rigid pavement considering dynamic vehicle–pavement interaction effects

In the present study, an improved solution algorithm based on Finite Element Method for dynamic analysis of rigid pavements under moving loads is presented incorporating vehicle–pavement interaction which is having significant effect on the response. The concrete pavement is discretized by finite and infinite plate elements. The underlying soil medium is modeled by Pasternak model. An attempt is made to consider the infinite extent of the pavement with introduction of infinite elements at both ends. A detailed study is carried out for the range of velocities for pavements of finite and infinite lengths resting on two parameter soil medium. The effect of soil modulus, shear modulus, pavement thickness and the vehicle–pavement interaction on the response of pavement is presented. Relationships are suggested in non-dimensional form to predict critical velocity and maximum deflection for three prominent peaks in case of analysis without VPI and first critical velocity range of analysis with VPI. Predicted values using these relationships are in good agreement with the actual values. The comparison between the response of finite and infinite pavement lengths revealed that the deflections are decreased and the critical velocity range is narrowed in case of pavements of infinite length.     

Numerical and experimental investigation on stochastic dynamic load of a heavy duty vehicle

Numerical simulation and field test are used to investigate tire dynamic load. Based on multi-body dynamics theory, a nonlinear virtual prototype model of heavy duty vehicle (DFL1250A9) is modeled. The geometric structural parameters of the vehicle system, the nonlinear characteristics of shock absorber and leaf springs are precisely described. The dynamic model is validated by testing the data, including vertical acceleration of driver seat, front wheel, intermediate wheel and rear wheel axle head. The agreement between the response of the virtual vehicle model and the measurements on the test vehicle is satisfactory. Using the reliable model, the effects of vehicle speed, load, road surface roughness and tire stiffness on tire dynamic load and dynamic load coefficient (DLC) are discussed. The results demonstrate that the proposed model can offer efficient and realistic simulation for stochastic dynamic loads, so as to investigate vehicle road-friendliness.     

Time series analysis for ground penetrating radar (GPR) asphalt thickness profile

Time series obtained from the waveform profiles of the ground penetrating radar (GPR) thickness of the asphaltic concrete layers of in–service pavement holds a key to the understanding of thickness variation and the presence of cavities within and below the pavement surface. In this paper, the fundamental techniques of time series modelling—(i) identification, (ii) estimation and (iii) diagnostics—are applied to the GPR thickness profile of three types of pavement—(a) fully–designed (b) partially–designed and (c) compositely designed pavement. Actual applications are made using data from in–service pavement in the state of Kansas. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism that drives the data and to compare the model errors and statistics of the thickness profiles of different types of flexible pavement. In the present study, the time series is replaced by a distance scale, but the name time series is retained.