Full-car roughness index as summary roughness statistic

The international roughness index (IRI) and the half-car roughness index (HRI) are the two commonly used roughness indices for pavement management, decision making, prioritization, budgeting, and planning. This work presents a new statistic, termed the full-car roughness index (FRI), for calculation of roughness from longitudinal pavement profiles. FRI is calculated from a single, equivalent profile that is a composite of four corner profiles based on both civil and mechanical engineering principles. More specifically, the full-car (four-wheel) model combines the rear and front suspension systems through an interdependent relation of motion with the longitudinal axle. To validate this model, the FRI values for different pavement sections are determined for sampling roughness measurements from several states and provinces. Then, the behavior of FRI is compared with that of IRI and HRI. The methodology of assessment uses a Monte Carlo simulation for calibration and validation of the index. Correlations derived from this sensitivity analysis on the basis of regression analysis arrive at a conversion chart to propose conversion values from these indices to FRIs. Overall, this paper suggests that the mechanical response of the proposed full-car model is more representative of the characteristics of a real vehicle than the response of a quarter- or half-car model. The results also indicate that FRI is less sensitive to the governing factors that account for the quarter-car simulation and thus provides an index that is unique, insightful, and more effective in the characterization of ride quality.