Vehicle Turning Carbon Emissions and Highway Planar Alignment Design Indicators

Abstract

The carbon emitted by vehicles traveling on curved roads is greatly affected by the alignment of the route, yet the mechanism behind this is not yet clear, leading to current horizontal alignment designs being unable to avoid this problem. To clarify the principles and indicator thresholds of low-carbon design for planar geometry, this study takes the carbon emission of traveling on curved routes as the research object, and establishes a relationship model between carbon emissions and design indicators based on the principles of vehicle dynamics and kinematics. Field tests were conducted to validate the quantitative relationship model. The model shows that both radius and superelevation are negatively correlated with carbon emissions, while the lateral force coefficient is positively correlated with carbon emissions. The contribution of radius to carbon emissions is greater than that of superelevation. This study clarifies the recommended values of low-carbon design indicators by assessing carbon emissions according to the current route design specification, outlines the principles of superelevation settings, and proposes a methodology to deal with the relationship between superelevation and the lateral friction coefficient. The research findings promote the quantification and standardization of low-carbon highway design, contributing to the early mitigation of high-carbon emissions from curved traffic during the design phase.