Dynamics of rutting because of road surface wear

Abstract

The results of the road surface wear observations in different periods of the year on one of the highways are considered in the paper. Reducing the rate of wear of road surfaces by car tires is an urgent task for the Russian Federation, since the state incurs huge losses owing to this. A set of measures is necessary to reduce the wear of road surfaces, especially during the period when studded tires are used on the cars. Additional researches related to the specifics of our country are required for developing such activities. Foreign measures cannot be applied without significant modification, since each country has its own approach to solving this issue. It is necessary to fulfill a research of wear mechanisms in the “car tire – road surface” system and obtain quantitative dependences of the wear rate on some external factors to substantiate organizational and technical measures aimed at reducing road surface wear. The article presents the results of observations of the rate of increase in the track and the road surface roughness degradation are presented in the paper. The following quantitative indicators were determined as a result of observations: the rate of change in rut depth due to the road surface wear; spectral density of the microprofile of road surface roughness during its wear. Preliminary conclusions were drawn about the mechanism of road surface wear and proposals were formulated for the trend of further researches based on the results of field studies.

Keywords

• wear of the road surface
• roughness
• wear mechanism of the road surface
• track on the road surface
• microprofile of the road surface