Traditional means of measuring road roughness such as the NAASRA Roughness Meter and IRI's are based on car ride quality. Findings from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) DIVINE (Dynamic Interaction between Vehicle and INfrastructure Experiment) project demonstrate that roughness has a significant effect on dynamic loads and hence damage to bridges as well as pavements, vehicles and their cargo. While roughness standards are based on achieving car ride quality there is likely to be a case for adopting intervention standards based on the protection of infrastructure and/or the ride quality of trucks. Collaborating researchers at ARRB Transport Research and the Queensland University of Technology have undertaken a pilot study to derive further valuable information from the extensive laser profile data now readily available. Investigations include presenting the data as power spectral density plots (as per current draft ISO standard), visual ratings, vehicle simulation, as well as the standard roughness measures. The research demonstrates the benefits of maintaining smooth road profiles and the opportunity to add value to road profile data. (A)
Abstract