Truck-Platooning Impacts on Flexible Pavements: Experimental and Mechanistic Approaches

Abstract

Truck platoons are expected to improve safety and reduce fuel consumption. However, their use is projected to accelerate pavement damage due to channelized-load application (lack of wander) and potentially reduced duration between truck-loading applications (reduced rest period). The effect of wander on pavement damage is well documented, while relatively few studies are available on the effect of rest period on pavement permanent deformation. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to quantify the impact of rest period theoretically, using a numerical method, and experimentally, using laboratory testing. A 3-D finite-element (FE) pavement model was developed and run to quantify the effect of rest period. Strain recovery and accumulation were predicted by fitting Gaussian mixture models to the strain values computed from the FE model. The effect of rest period was found to be insignificant for truck spacing greater than 10 ft. An experimental program was conducted, and several asphalt concrete (AC) mixes were considered at various stress levels, temperatures, and rest periods. Test results showed that AC deformation increased with rest period, irrespective of AC-mix type, stress level, and/or temperature. This observation was attributed to a well-documented hardening–relaxation mechanism, which occurs during AC plastic deformation. Hence, experimental and FE-model results are conflicting due to modeling AC as a viscoelastic and the difference in the loading mechanism. A shift model was developed by extending the time–temperature superposition concept to incorporate rest period, using the experimental data. The shift factors were used to compute the equivalent number of cycles for various platoon scenarios (truck spacings or rest period). The shift model was implemented in AASHTOware pavement mechanic–empirical design (PMED) guidelines for the calculation of rutting using equivalent number of cycles.