Modeling the Impacts of Fixed-Path Truck Platooning on Pavement Performance: Texas IH 35 Case Study
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part B: Pavements
Volume 150, Issue 2
Abstract
As a step toward revolutionizing and optimizing freight transport, autonomous truck platooning technology (i.e., a set of connected heavy-duty trucks traveling closely at specific headway intervals) has been the center of research over last few years. Connected autonomous vehicles (CAV), in the form of truck platooning, can be implemented as a novel contribution to sustainable freight transport with the potential of offering the following synergistic benefits, among others: road safety improvements, enhanced economic prospects, and environmental preservation. In this study, the impacts of fixed-path truck platooning on pavement performance were modeled and numerically quantified using elastic and dynamic-viscoelastic finite-element (FE) methods. Factors including pavement layers’ geometrical and mechanical characteristics, traffic characteristics and counts, axle configuration, and seasonal temperature are analyzed to address the platooning effect in this study. Yet, other possible wandering patterns between the fixed-path and normally distributed wandering patterns, as well as the effects of speed variations, driving behaviors, and tire pressure (i.e., variation in dynamic loading), can be further studied. The mechanical responses (namely displacements, strains, and stresses) obtained from the FE modeling were used to predict the effects of truck platooning on the pavement performance due to limited wandering (lateral movement of truck tires). The FE modeling results indicated that the channeling effects (i.e., limited tire wandering) of truck platooning have negative effects on the pavement performance with respect to decay in fatigue life and increase in permanent deformation. With fixed-path platooning, the fatigue life is reduced in the range of 13.9% to 34.5% in terms of the number of load cycles over the 20-year design life. The permanent deformation (rutting) value over a fixed period is increased by a factor of 1.2 to 2.9.
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Data Availability Statement
All the data that support the findings of this study are available in a repository in accordance with funder data retention policies (Hassan et al. 2020).
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by Research and Innovative Technology Administration (19PITSLSU14).
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part B: Pavements
Volume 150 • Issue 2 • June 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 12, 2022
Accepted: Dec 19, 2023
Published online: Mar 6, 2024
Published in print: Jun 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Aug 6, 2024
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