Westrack Track Roughness, Fuel Consumption, and Maintenance Costs [techbrief]

Details

• Creators:
  Sime, M. ; Ashmore, S.C. ; Alavi, S.
• Corporate Creators:
  Nevada Automotive Test Center ; Nichols Consulting Engineers
• Contributors:
  Mitchell, Terry
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration. Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Research, Development, and Technology
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Pavements
  • Test facilities
  • Pavement performance
  • Roughness
  • Rutting
  • Accelerated tests
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA-RD-00-052
• Resource Type:
  Brief
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Research, Development, and Technology
• Abstract:
  Loading tests recently completed at the WesTrack facility in Nevada have provided significant data on truck fuel and maintenance costs as a function of pavement smoothness. Four driverless trucks were used over 2 1/2 years to travel more than 1.3 million km (820,000 mi) and apply some 4.9 million 80-kN (18,000-lb) Equivalent Single Axle Loads (ESALs). During this period, pavement sections located on the track's tangents developed varying amounts of roughness, rutting, and/or fatigue cracking. Some sections eventually required major rehabilitation. Vehicle and pavement data taken before and after the rehabilitation were used to project the impact of pavement roughness on vehicle operating costs. The results are reported briefly in this technical brief. Key findings were: (1) an increase in pavement roughness increased the fuel consumption of trucks applying loads to WesTrack pavement test sections - trucks used 4.5% less fuel/km on smooth pavement than on rough pavement; and (2) an increase in pavement roughness increased the frequency of fatigue failures of truck and trailer components during the WesTrack loading.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTFH61-94-C-00004
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/74567/dot_74567_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 222.65 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Federal Highway Administration
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e8ab01123615bfaf0f5bf5716363c572b8a4bf67891306c14b64464f9d007da193ad1478087d1345c7f940575f8f30809fff4c074fd02186d57c734d1fa01b41