Classification of Road Surface Profiles

Abstract

This paper introduces a universal classification methodology for discretely sampled sealed bituminous road profile data for the study of shock and vibrations related to the road transportation process. Data representative of a wide variety of Victorian (Australia) road profiles were used to develop a universal classification methodology with special attention to their non-Gaussian and nonstationary properties. This resulted in the design of computer software to automatically detect and extract transient events from the road spatial acceleration data as well as to identify segments of the constant RMS level enabling transients to be analyzed separately from the underlying road process. Nine universal classification parameters are introduced to describe road profile spatial acceleration based on the statistical characteristics of the transient amplitude and stationary RMS segments. Results from this study are aimed at the areas of road transport simulation as well as road surface characterization.