Pavement rutting performance analysis of automated vehicles: impacts of wander mode, lane width, and market penetration rate

Abstract

The deployment of automated vehicles (AVs) with the gradual market penetration rate increase and different potential lateral movement patterns combined with the lane width effect would lead to different load distribution scenarios, impacting the pavement performance. This study compares pavement rutting damages induced by different load distribution scenarios by setting out different penetration rates (i.e. 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%), wander modes (i.e. zero-, normal-, uniform-time-, and uniform-frequency-wander), and lane widths (i.e. 3, 3.25, and 3.5 m). A finite element model of a full-depth flexible pavement was developed using ABAQUS software to evaluate the pavement rutting. The results showed that the significance level of differences between rutting damages induced by different wander modes and lane widths is substantially influenced by the AVs’ penetration rate. For instance, in the higher penetration rates, the differences between the rutting performance of different wander modes are more significant than in the lower penetration rates. Furthermore, the lane width effect becomes more significant in the segregated scenario than in the integrated scenarios in normal- and uniform-wander modes. Accordingly, AVs’ penetration rate is a decisive factor in the practical decision-making process in the wander mode determination and lane width design for AVs.