Title: Some considerations on the measurement and evaluation of road roughness

Authors: A. Kawamura, K. Himeno, A. Kasahara, R. Shibazaki, S. Kameyama

Addresses: Hakodate National College of Technology, 14- 1, Tokura-cho Hakodate 042, Japan. ' Hokkaido University, North 13 West 8, Sapporo 060, Japan. ' Hokkaido Institute of Technology, 7-15-4-1 Maeda, Teine-ku, Sapporo 006, Japan. ' Nichireki, Ltd., 4-3-29 Kudan-kita, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102, Japan. ' Kajima Doro Co., Ltd., 2-19-1 Tobitakyu, Chohu, Tokyo 182, Japan

Abstract: Road roughness is a very important consideration in evaluating the condition of a given roadway, as it affects vehicles or vehicle passengers, e.g. ride comfort, safety, noise emission and operating cost factors. This research aims at measuring pavement surface profile and inquiring into methods for evaluating the serviceability of pavements that take into account the interaction between road surface and vehicle dynamics. This study is divided into two parts, starting with development of a new non-contact profilometer, which is capable of acquiring a huge volume of data at the normal vehicle speed. The new profilometer can be used to analyse even the macrotexture and obtain the roughness quite accurately. In the next part, correlations between the typical standards which relate to the evaluation of the road roughness are theoretically examined by the conventional mathematical model of the vehicle-tyre system. As a result, a schematic method that evaluates the road roughness synthetically is proposed.

Keywords: measuring method; non-contact profilometer; pavement serviceability; ride comfort; roughness models; road roughness; speed; vehicle-pavement interaction; road surface profiles; vehicle dynamics; roughness measurement; mathematical modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.1996.054564

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 1996 Vol.3 No.1/2/3/4, pp.261 - 274

Published online: 18 Jun 2013 *

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