Road Profile, Vehicle Dynamics, and Ride Quality Rating

Abstract

A great deal of research has been carried out over the past few decades in seeking explanatory variables to understand various human judgmental indices of road quality. The essential question is, What is a rater sensing in a dynamical vibration environment while in a vehicle moving on a road? And what does a rating given by a rater represent? This is an interesting operational problem dealing with a complex system, a problem embracing road profile, vehicle dynamic response, and human kinesthetic reaction to a vibration environment. It is suggested that the jerk experienced by raters is one of the most important variables in explaining human ratings of roads. A comprehensive investigation is carried out to show that the jerk plays a vital role in explaining the serviceability of roads. Comments are given on other road indices. Dependence of human rating on the speed of moving vehicles is also addressed.