• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.173-182
• /
• 2014

PURPOSES : The purpose of the study is to a) explore the operating speed of trucks on rural highways affected by road geometry, and thereby b) develop a predictive model for the operating speed of trucks on rural highways. METHODS : Considering that most of the existing studies have focused on cars, the current study aimed to predict the operating speed of trucks by conducting linear regression analysis on the speed data of trucks operating on the linear-curved-linear portions of the road as a single set. RESULTS : The operating speed in the plane curve portion increased with the length of the curve, and decreased with a lower vertical grade and a smaller curve radius. In the straight plane portion, the operating speed increased with a larger curve radius(upstream), and decreased with an increase in the change of the vertical grade, depending on the length of the vertical curve. CONCLUSIONS : This study developed estimation models of truck for operational speed and evaluated the degree of safety for horizontal and vertical alignments simultaneous. In order to represent whole area of the rural highway, the models should be ew-analyzed with vast data related with road alignment factor in the near future.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.37-52
• /
• 2010

Special-shape arch bridge for self-balance (SBSSAB) in Zhongshan City is a kind of new fashioned spatial combined arch bridge composed of inclined steel arch ribs, curved steel box girder and inclined suspenders, and the mechanical behavior of the SBSSAB is particularly complicated. The SBSSAB is aesthetic in appearance, and design of the SBSSAB is artful and particular. In order to roundly investigate the mechanical behavior of the SBSSAB, 3-D finite element models for spatial member and shell were established to analyze the mechanical properties of the SBSSAB using ANSYS. Finite element analyses were conducted under several main loading cases, moreover deformation and strain values for control section of the SBSSAB under several main loading cases were proposed. To ensure the safety and rationality for optimal design of the SBSSAB and also to verify the reliability of its design and calculation theories, the 1/10 scale model tests were carried out. The measured results include the load checking calculation, lane loading and crowd load, and dead load. A good agreement is achieved between the experimental and analytical results. Both experimental and analytical results have shown that the SBSSAB is in the elastic state under the planned test loads, which indicates that the SBSSAB has an adequate load-capacity. The calibrated finite-element model that reflects the as-built conditions can be used as a baseline for health monitoring and future maintenance of the SBSSAB.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.24 no.9 s.180
• /
• pp.2228-2234
• /
• 2000

Steering of the vehicles on a slippery highway is a difficult task for most passenger car drivers. The steering vehicles on slippery roads tend to slide outward with less lateral forces than on nor mal roads. When the drivers notice that their vehicles on a slippery highway start to depart from the cornering lane, most of them make a sudden steering and/or braking, which in turn may induce spin-out and instability on their vehicles. In this paper, an active steering control method is proposed such that the vehicles in slippery roads are steered as if they are driven on the normal roads. In the proposed method, the estimated lateral forces acting on the steering tires are compared with the reference values and the difference is compensated by the active steering method. A fuzzy logic controller is designed for this purpose and evaluated on a steering Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation (HILS) system. Steering performance results on the slippery curved and sinus roads demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller. This method can be realized with the steer-by-wire concept and is promising as an active safety technology.

• Journal of Drive and Control
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.80-86
• /
• 2020

Autonomous driving is one of the most important new technologies of our time; it has benefits in terms of safety, the environment, and economic issues. Path following algorithms, such as automated lane keeping systems (ALKSs), are key level 3 or higher functions of autonomous driving. Pure-Pursuit and Stanley controllers are widely used because of their good path tracking performance and simplicity. However, with the Pure-Pursuit controller, corner cutting behavior occurs on curved roads, and the Stanley controller has a risk of divergence depending on the response of the steering system. In this study, we use the advantages of each controller to propose a hybrid control strategy that can be stably applied to complex driving environments. The weight of each controller is determined from the global and local curvature indexes calculated from HD map information and the current driving speed. Our experimental results demonstrate the ability of the hybrid controller, which had a cross-track error of under 0.1 m in a virtual environment that simulates K-City, with complex driving environments such as urban areas, community roads, and high-speed driving roads.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.95-105
• /
• 2002

Under a specific roadway alignment condition by design-speed standards, safety of the roadway is determined by an actual operating speed of a driver. This research takes first lanes of four-lane(hi-direction) rural highways as target facility. It also takes the straight and curved lanes of the selected highways for in-depth study. This study used NC-97 to detect speeds of passenger cars whose speeds are not affected by front vehicles. This research analyzed properties of 85th percentile operating speed at upstream of horizontal and through curves under various alignment conditions. The results show that 53∼65 Percent of drivers drive faster than the posted speed-limit (80KPH) by 14∼20 KPH on average. It also shows that the 85th-percentile operating speeds are the lowest at the middle point of curve length when curve radius is smaller. However, they are lowest at 1/4 point of curve length when curve radius is greater. Along roadways where curve radius is small, difference between upstream speed and the speed along the curve is considerably large. On the other hand. the speed difference is setting smaller as the curve radius is increasing. According to the results, significant variables affecting the 85th percentile operating speeds are curve radius and the 85th-Percentile operating speeds of upstream curves.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.95-102
• /
• 2012

This study has been conducted to characterize the relations between the accident rate and the overlap section elements where the horizontal alignment and vertical alignment are overlapped. The researches were performed on Horizontal curve sections of 4-lane highways with 100km/h of design speed and speed limit. Korea Highway Corporation's Geographic Figurative Information System was adopted for geometric organization and Highway Traffic Accident Statistics was used. The results reveal that sections made of a single slope without vertical curve has greater accident rate than those with vertical curve, and that sections with 1 vertical curve are higher in the accident rate than those with over 2 vertical curve. For the sections with 1 vertical curve, SAG sections are higher than CREST sections and for the previous straight section of horizontal curve are higher than curved ones. In particular, when the road surface is wet, the accident rate is closely related with SAG vertical curves or leftward horizontal curved sections. This study will have meanings that it proposes the importance of design of road alignment by taking consideration of 3D synthetic alignment conditions for improvement of the road safety.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.7 no.4 s.26
• /
• pp.173-184
• /
• 2005

Pavement markings delineate driver's sight and attentions at day and night. Retroreflectivities of the pavement markings are known to be affected by some factors such as geometrical characteristics of road sections, marking materials, traffic volumes, weather, and so on. Therefore, pavement markings would have different retroreflectivities place by place. The objective of this paper is to contend that there are rises and falls of retroreflectivity of specific geometrical characteristics of road section based on observed field data. For this purpose, retroreflectivities of yellow continued lines and white skip lines were measured on the freeway sections from Hanam to Nami interchanges. And then, the sections are categorized based on road geometric or facility types. From this study, it may be concluded that there exist considerably lower retroreflectivity trends of pavement markings at sharply curved sections, climbing lane sections, ramp sections, and tunnel sections than averaged retroreflectivity trends on freeway sections. This may leads to the necessity of differential pavement marking managements.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.163-171
• /
• 2017

PURPOSES : Traffic safety facilities are used to prevent traffic accidents before they occur by providing drivers with information on traffic situations and the geometric design of roads. However, some facilities not defined in guidelines do not meet installation criteria, yet are being installed and used in order to increase efficiency in traffic flow and prevent traffic accidents in a specific expressway zone. In this study, we have evaluated the effect of delineation system which are not defined in the guideline criteria. METHODS : Different virtual scenarios were created for roads using expressway median barrier chevron signs, with a driving simulator used to evaluate the installation and operational effect of such signs. Ten experiments were performed with left- and right-curved roads at curve radius intervals of 500 m, from 500 m to 2,500 m. RESULTS : For sections with a curve radius of more than 1,500 m, drivers had a clear tendency toward stable driving regardless of delineation system. When a chevron sign is installed on a protection fence in the road curving left, an expanded installation is recommended up to the section with a curve radius of 1,000 m. According to the analysis results for the RHB (Relative High Beta spectrum), driving concentration also improved up to a curve radius of 1,000 m. CONCLUSIONS :The experiment result indicates the extent of biasing within a lane and the manipulation amount of steering handle, were analyzed and found to be affected by curve radius and road alignment regardless of delineation system.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.44-49
• /
• 2013

This paper presents a lateral collision risk index between an ego vehicle and a rear-side vehicle. The lateral collision risk is designed to represent a lateral collision risk and provide the appropriate threshold value of activation of the lateral collision management system such as the Blind Spot Detection(BSD). The lateral collision risk index is designed using the Time to Line Crossing(TLC) and the longitudinal collision index at the predicted TLC. TLC and the longitudinal collision index are calculated with the signals from the exterior sensor such as the radar equipped on the rear-side of a vehicle and a vision sensor which detects the distance and time to the lane departure. For the robust situation assessment, the perception of driving environment determining whether the road is straighten or curved should be determined. The relative motion estimation method has been proposed with the road information via the integrated estimator using the environment sensors and vehicle sensor. A lateral collision risk index was composed with the estimated relative motion considering the relative yaw angle. The performance of the proposed lateral collision risk index is investigated via computer simulations conducted using the vehicle dynamics software CARSIM and Matlab/Simulink.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.103-114
• /
• 2011

In this study, we discuss a fatal accident severity model obtained from the analysis of 112 crash sites collected since 2000, and the resulting relationship between fatal accidents and roadway geometry design. From the 720 times computer simulations for improving driving safety, we then reached the following conclusions:. First, the result of cross and frequency-analyses on the car accident sites showed that 43.7% of the accidents occurred on the curved roads, 60.7% on the vertical curve section, 57.2% on the roadways with radius of curvature of 0 to 24m, 83.9% on the roads with superelevation of 0.1 to 2.0% and 49.1% on the one-way 2-lane roads; vehicle types involved are passenger vehicles (33.0%), trucks (20.5%) and buses (14.3%) in order of frequency. The results also show that the superelevation is the most influencing factor for the fatal accidents. Second, employing the Ordered Probit Model (OPM), we developed a severity model for fatal accidents being a function of on various road conditions so as to the damages can be predicted. The proposed model possibly assists the practitioners to predict dangerous roadway segments, and to take appropriate measures in advance. Third, computer simulation runs show that providing adequate superelevation on the segment where a fatal accident occurred could reduce similar fatal accidents by at least 85%. This result indicates that the regulations specified in the Rule for Road Structure and Facility Standard (description and guidelines) should be enhanced to include more specific requirement for providing the superelevation.