Impact Of Vehicle Suspension And Tire Pressure On Road Damage - Assignment Solution

Introduction

1. Background 

Roads is one of the important mediums of transportation and travel across the globe. The damage to roads can have significant impact on environment, people and businesses (Inman, 2013). According to Sukirman (1996), damage to road pavement is generally caused by water, form of rainwater, road drainage system, ground water rise due to nature of capillarity, traffic, which increases burden on road and tends to be redundant and looping load (Jacob & Muller, 2016). The roads can be damaged due to the material pavement construction process and material properties, which do not meet standards, or the processing system of the material is not appropriate. Soil conditions unstable the base, which can also impact the road condition (Cebon, 2000). The different types of damages caused to the road include cracking, distortion and disintegration.  Various types of cracks are caused on the roads due to structural reason, use of material and also due to exceeding load capacity of the road traffic besides other causes (Inman, 2013). Distortion/deformation of the road is caused due to poor foundation soil, poor compaction layer or foundation, which is further affected by traffic load (Pable et al., 2007). Disintegration is a defect on the surface of pavement and is caused due to weather influence, material and pressure of the traffic. Road damage have various impact at individual and national level (Jacob & Muller, 2016). It can lead to road fatalities, which disproportionately affect the nations due to increasing road deaths. Deaths and injuries from road accidents affect medium and long-term growth prospect of nation by removing the prime age adults from work force and reducing the productivity due to the burden of injuries (The World Bank, 2018). The country also has to keep investing on the maintenance of the roads, which affects the traffic and daily businesses, indirectly impacting the economy of the nation. Road damage is caused by various factors and one of the factors is the tyre pressure from heavy vehicles and increased traffic and the vehicle suspension system (Cebon, 2000). Due to increase in road traffic and use of huge transportation vehicles, which exert dynamic load on the roads due to their suspension system leading to road damages. There is a need to analyze the level of impact of tyre pressure and vehicle suspension system towards road damage in order to reduce its influence and increase the life of the road. This will also help in reducing the economic burden by reducing accidents and reducing the maintenance cost for the roads. 

1. Context 

Roadways are the means of transportation on land and includes highway system and streets across the cities of the country, which caters to wide range of vehicles (Jacob & Muller, 2016). Transportation through road has grown significantly over the years as it has maximum flexibility for travelling with respect to direction, route, time and speed of travel (Steoff, 2012). The increase in population, globalization and rapidly changing business environment has led to increase in transportation and use of heavy vehicles with dynamic loads (Peppas, 2012). The increased traffic of vehicles and heavy trucks have been impacting the life of the road. The heavy vehicles with dynamic load put increased pressure on the road due to tyre pressure and their poor suspension system, which damages the road significantly by cracking it or creating deformations (Huhtala et al., 1989). This can have a larger impact to the society if the issue is not addressed. Damaged roads can lead to increase cost for users and society in terms of consumption of more fuel while traveling on poor maintained roads, diversions because of poor road condition or emergency repair work causing additional travel time costs (Cebon, 2000). Damage to roads need to be addressed as they are huge financial investments and also causes greater inconvenience to people of the society (Peppas, 2012). If the road damage factors are not control it can incur increased maintenance expenditure of roads in future wherein serious interventions might be required to improve the conditions of the road (Jacob & Muller, 2016). The lack of maintenance of the roads mainly in high way can lead to increased accident rates, increased noise and vibration for adjacent properties, increased fuel consumption and mission, greater impact of interventions by others and can also reduce accessibility for all types of road users (Pable et al., 2007). The increased and continuous pressure from the traffic and heavy vehicles cause increased fatigue of the pavement and permanent deformations in structural layers of the road. To reduce the investment on roads for maintenance and reduce financial burden due to road damage impact of vehicles have to be reduced significantly.

1. Purpose 

Transportation and travel through roads has increased significantly with rapidly increasing number of highways, road connections across the cities in a nation, which has led to increase in traffic and heavy transportation vehicles (Jacob & Muller, 2016). The daily impact of heavy vehicles on the road can cause increasing damage to the road, which can not just impact the traffic flow, but also can lead to accidents, increased investment in road maintenance and increase the overall economic burden on the country (Huhtala et al., 1989). The purpose of this research is to analyze one of the factors, which causes road damage, which is tyre pressure and vehicle suspension system (Liu, 2015). The increase in dynamic load increases actual axle load, which road bears that leads to road damages. The increase in tyre stiffness coefficient and reduced suspension damping coefficient increases dynamic load, which in turn puts extra pressure of the vehicle on the road via the tyres of the vehicle leading to damage of the road (Peppas, 2012). This study analyzes the amount of damage that is caused due to tyre pressure and influence of vehicle suspension on the load of the vehicle on the load and whether improving these factors can reduce road damage.