The Effects of Automated Vehicles Deployment on Pavement Rutting Performance

Abstract

The advent of automated vehicles (AVs) creates an essential need for upgrading conventional pavement infrastructure. It is possible to use either dedicated lanes for AVs or shared travel lanes with different AVs' penetration rates. One of the most significant differences between AVs and nonAVs is the lateral wandering pattern, which can influence the pavement rutting performance. This paper evaluates the impacts of two potential wander modes of AVs (i.e., zero and uniform) on rutting performance with several AVs' penetration rates and different lane width scenarios. The finite element (FE) simulation results showed that the AVs' penetration rate together with the road lane width can influence the pavement rutting performance. For instance, it was observed that using the zero mode for AVs could increase the rutting depth only in the higher AVs' penetration rates, and the use of uniform mode could increase the pavement rutting damage in the narrower lanes.