A new methodological approach for road friction deterioration models development based on energetic road traffic characterization

Safety studies have indicated strong correlation between road friction and accident risk, with a dramatic increase in accident when friction drops below certain threshold. For this reason, managing pavement skid resistance is an important mean to reduce crashes. Unfortunately, during the pavement lifespan, skid resistance undergoes to deterioration due to several factors (traffic wear, weathering and aging). The correct management of road pavements implies the knowledge of the performance evolution, obtained both with monitoring and degradation models, however, among those latter available in literature, very few explored the influence of traffic vehicles in terms of type and travel mode. In this paper a new methodology combining the use of road sectioning schemes with a traffic damage criterion based on the dissipated energy at the tire-road pavement contact, for the development of degradation curves from experimental data collected on roads with different traffic, in terms of volumes, vehicle composition and motion conditions, is presented. The methodology has been validated to an open graded bituminous surface course (OGSC) on urban motorway and obtained degradation models have been also compared with those provided by a traditional degradation modelling approach highlighting the superior performance of the proposed approach.