• Title/Summary/Keyword: roadways

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IRI estimation using analysis of dynamic tire pressure and axle acceleration

  • Zhao, Yubo;McDaniel, J. Gregory;Wang, Ming L.
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.151-161
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    • 2017
  • A new method is developed to estimate road profile in order to estimate IRI based on the ASTM standard. This method utilizes an accelerometer and a Dynamic Tire Pressure Sensor (DTPS) to estimate road roughness. The accelerometer measures the vertical axle acceleration. The DTPS, which is mounted on the tire's valve stem, measures dynamic pressure inside the tire while driving. Calibrated transfer functions are used to estimate road profile using the signals from the two sensors. A field test was conducted on roads with different quality conditions in the city of Brockton, MA. The IRI values estimated with this new method match the actual road conditions measured with Pavement Condition Index (PCI) based on the ASTM standard, images taken from an onboard camera and passengers' perceptions. IRI has negative correlation with PCI in general since they have overlapping features. Compared to the current method of IRI measurement, the advantage of this method is that a) the cost is reduced; b) more space is saved; c) more time is saved; and d) mounting the two sensors are universally compatible to most cars and vans. Therefore, this method has the potential to provide continuous and global monitoring the health of roadways.

Traffic Signal Timing at Semi-Protected Left-Turn Intersections for Energy Saving (에너지절약을 위한 반보호 좌회전 교차로의 신호시간설계)

  • 김경환
    • Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.19-35
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    • 1987
  • Transportation energy saving is a national concern because all national petroleum energy is imported. A number of intersections are operating as semi-protected intersections, which have left-turn signal but not exclusive left-turn lanes, because of limited roadways in urban areas. Since the traffic signal methods for the intersections having left-turn signal/lanes cannot be applied to the semi-protected intersection, it is needed to develop a new technique. The purpose of this study was to develop a traffic signal timing method at semi-protected intersections for energy saving and to computerize the method for the practical use. A probability model which could estimate left-turn utilization factors of through traffic during green signal was developed based on field studies. Employing the factors, macro-models to estimate vehicular average delay and proportions of vehicles stopped at the semiprotected intersections were developed. The calculated values of the delay model agreed well with the simulated values of a simulation model using SLAM Ⅱ, a simulation language. Using the two models and the idling fuel consumption rate and the excess fuel consumption per stop-go speed change of vehicles. a traffic signal timing method at semi-protected intersections for energy saving was developed and computerized. The method can be used for other measures of effectiveness such as minimum delay, minimum stop ratio, etc.

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Indoor and Outdoor Concentrations of Air Pollutants in Beauty Shops at Kwangju Area

  • Son, Bu-Soon;Song, Mi-Ra;Yang, Won-Ho;Chung, Young-Dall;Pack, Jong-An
    • Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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    • 2005.06a
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    • pp.373-377
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    • 2005
  • The work of hairdressers includes washing, coloring, bleaching, permanent waving, conditioning, and cutting hair. Hairdressers are subjected to a number of physical and toxicological hazards. The toxicological hazards are those resulting from exposure to a wide range of chemicals and from chemicals are usually classified active processes. In this study, twenty beauty shops were selected to assess the exposure to indoor air pollutants such as VOCS and particulate matter($PM_{10}$) during one month from September 1 to September 30, 2003. Indoor air quality of beauty shops might be worse by vehicle emissions because the beauty shops were generally located near roadways. Personal exposures to VOCs and PM lo were related to indoor concentrations of beauty shops. According to the questionnaire, hairdressers complained of sore throat, eye irritation, and nervousness as physical symptoms. Conclusively, customers as well as workers in the beauty shops might be highly exposed to air pollutants from indoor sources and outdoor sources. Therefore, proper management methods should be taken to improve the indoor air quality in beauty shops.

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An Analytical and Experimental Study on the Mechanical Behavior of Excavating Turnels beneath the Roadway (공용중 도로하부의 굴착터널 해석 및 계측 연구)

  • Chung, Kuang-Mo;Bang, Myung-Seok
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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    • v.27 no.5
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    • pp.99-104
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    • 2012
  • A turnelling work beneath roadways or railways in use is unsafe and dangerous. A turnelling method should be analytically and experimentally studied to verify stability and safety of excavating works by construction step. The conventionally analytical method was ineffective in computational time and cost, so the new analytical method named homogenuity method, was developed and verified compared with analytical results. That method was applied to parameterly study the effect of distance of steel supports and overburdening height of soil. It showed that the homogenuity method was very practical and effective in step-by-step analysis considering construction sequences. A measuring device was set at the construction field and mechanical behavior was monitored during construction. Measuring values are larger than analytical values because impact of inserting steel pipes, lowering level of underground water and vibration of passing vehicles affected soil density during construction, but those values were within allowable limits.

Unified approach to predict the dynamic performance of transportation system considering wind effects

  • Chen, S.R.;Cai, C.S.
    • Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.279-292
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    • 2006
  • Natural hazards, including the wind hazard and others, threaten the integrity of the modern society. A transportation system usually consists of roadways, bridges and related vehicles. Harsh environmental conditions, caused by such as wind, exist in the real world frequently and affect the dynamic performance of the transportation system through their interactions. Long-span bridges are usually the backbones of transportation lines. In windy conditions, the information about the dynamic performance of bridges and vehicles considering full interactions of environmental factors is very essential for people to assess the overall operational conditions and safety risks of the transportation lines. Most of existent approaches target specifically at several isolated tasks considering partial interaction effects. In order to improve the understanding of these related-in-nature problems integrally as well as the consistency of different approaches, a unified approach to integrally predict the dynamic performance of long-span bridges and vehicles under wind is introduced. Such an approach can be used as a general platform to predict the dynamic responses of vehicles and bridges under various situations through adopting both commercial and in-house software. Dynamic interaction effects can be fully considered automatically for each situation. An example of a prototype bridge in US is given for the purpose of demonstration.

Optimal pre-conditioning and support designs of floor heave in deep roadways

  • Wang, Chunlai;Li, Guangyong;Gao, Ansen;Shi, Feng;Lu, Zhijiang;Lu, Hui
    • Geomechanics and Engineering
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    • v.14 no.5
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    • pp.429-437
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    • 2018
  • In order to reduce deformation of roadway floor heave in deep underground soft rockmass, four support design patterns were analyzed using the Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua (FLAC)3D, including the traditional bolting (Design 1), the bolting with the backbreak in floor (Design 2), the full anchorage bolting with the backbreak in floor (Design 3) and the full anchorage bolting with the bolt-grouting backbreak in floor (Design 4). Results show that the design pattern 4, the full anchorage bolting with the bolt-grouting backbreak in floor, was the best one to reduce the deformation and failure of the roadway, the floor deformation was reduced at 88.38% than the design 1, and these parameters, maximum vertical stress, maximum horizontal displacement and maximum horizontal stress, were greater than 1.69%, 5.96% and 9.97%. However, it was perfectly acceptable with the floor heave results. The optimized design pattern 4 provided a meaningful and reliable support for the roadway in deep underground coal mine.

Rock fracturing mechanisms around underground openings

  • Shen, Baotang;Barton, Nick
    • Geomechanics and Engineering
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.35-47
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    • 2018
  • This paper investigates the mechanisms of tunnel spalling and massive tunnel failures using fracture mechanics principles. The study starts with examining the fracture propagation due to tensile and shear failure mechanisms. It was found that, fundamentally, in rock masses with high compressive stresses, tensile fracture propagation is often a stable process which leads to a gradual failure. Shear fracture propagation tends to be an unstable process. Several real case observations of spalling failures and massive shear failures in boreholes, tunnels and underground roadways are shown in the paper. A number of numerical models were used to investigate the fracture mechanisms and extents in the roof/wall of a deep tunnel and in an underground coal mine roadway. The modelling was done using a unique fracture mechanics code FRACOD which simulates explicitly the fracture initiation and propagation process. The study has demonstrated that both tensile and shear fracturing may occur in the vicinity of an underground opening. Shallow spalling in the tunnel wall is believed to be caused by tensile fracturing from extensional strain although no tensile stress exists there. Massive large scale failure however is most likely to be caused by shear fracturing under high compressive stresses. The observation that tunnel spalling often starts when the hoop stress reaches $0.4^*UCS$ has been explained in this paper by using the extension strain criterion. At this uniaxial compressive stress level, the lateral extensional strain is equivalent to the critical strain under uniaxial tension. Scale effect on UCS commonly believed by many is unlikely the dominant factor in this phenomenon.

Modeling Study on Dispersion and Scavenging of Traffic Pollutants at the Location Near a Busy Road

  • Ma, Chang-Jin
    • Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.9 no.4
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    • pp.272-279
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    • 2015
  • The information about the dispersion and scavenging of traffic-related pollutants at the locations near busy expressways is very helpful to highway planners for developing better plans to reduce exposures to air pollution for people living as well as children attending schools and child care centers near roadways. The objective of the current study was to give information in the dispersion and scavenging of vehicle-derived pollutants at the region near a busy urban expressway by a combination of two different model calculations. The modified Gaussian dispersion model and the Lagrange type below-cloud scavenging model were applied to evaluate $NO_x$ dispersion and DEP (Diesel exhaust particles) wet removal, respectively. The highest $NO_x$ was marked 53.17 ppb within 20-30 meters from the target urban expressway during the heaviest traffic hours (08:00AM-09:00AM) and it was 2.8 times higher than that of really measured at a nearby ambient measuring station. The calculated DEP concentration in size-resolved raindrops showed a continuous decreasing with increasing raindrop size. Especially, a noticeable decrease was found between 0.2 mm and 1.0 mm raindrop diameter.

Performance Evaluation of High-RAP Asphalt Mixtures using Rapid-Setting Polymer-Modified Asphalt Emulsion (긴급보수용 개질 유화아스팔트 고비율 순환골재를 사용한 상온 아스팔트 혼합물의 성능 평가)

  • Kwon, Bong Ju;Heo, Jae Min;Han, Yong Jin;Rhee, Suk Keun
    • International Journal of Highway Engineering
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.21-30
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    • 2015
  • PURPOSES : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of rapid-setting polymer-modified asphalt mixtures with a high reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) content. METHODS: A literature review revealed that emulsified asphalt is actively used for cold-recycled pavement. First, two types of rapid-setting polymer-modified asphalt emulsion were prepared for application to high-RAP material with no virgin material content. The quick-setting polymer-modified asphalt mixtures using two types of rapid-setting polymer-modified asphalt emulsion were subjected to the following tests: 1) Marshall stability test, 2) water immersion stability test and 3) indirect tensile strength ratio test. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS : Additional re-calibration of the RAP was needed for laboratory verification because the results of analyzing RAP aggregates, which were collected from different job sites, did not deviate from the normal range. The Marshall stability of each type of binder under dry conditions was good. However, the Type B mixtures with bio-additives performed better in the water immersion stability test. Moreover, the overall results of the indirect tensile strength test of RAP mixtures with Type B emulsions exceeded 0.7. Further research, consisting of lab testing and on-site application, will be performed to verify the possibility of using RAP for minimizing the closing of roadways.

Development of Roundabout Accident Models by Region (지역별 회전교차로 사고모형 개발 및 논의)

  • Son, Seul Ki;Park, Byung Ho
    • International Journal of Highway Engineering
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.67-74
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    • 2018
  • PURPOSES : The goal of this study is the development of roundabout accident models for urban and non-urban areas. METHODS : This study performed a comparative analysis of the regional factors affecting accidents. Traffic accident data were collected for the period 2010~2014 from the TAAS data set of the Road Traffic Authority. To develop the roundabout accident models, the Poisson and negative binomial regression models were used. A total of 25 explanatory variables such as geometry, and traffic volume were used. RESULTS : The key findings are as follows: First, it was found that the null hypotheses that the number of accidents is the same should be rejected. Second, three Poisson regression accident models, which are statistically significant (${\rho}^2$ of 0.154 and 0.385) were developed. Third, it was noted that although the common variable of the three models (models I~III) is the number of entry lanes, the specific variables are entry lane width, roundabout sign, number of circulatory roadways, splitter island, number of exit lanes, exit lane width, number of approach roads, and truck apron. CONCLUSIONS : The results of this study can provide suggestive countermeasures for decreasing the number of roundabout accidents.