Vehicle excess fuel consumption due to pavement deflection

The pavement structural rolling resistance (SRR) effect on vehicles' excess fuel consumption (EFC) was investigated. A practical approach was proposed to assess vehicle EFC due to pavement deflection based on the fundamental energy-deformation principles. The proposed model was formulated using a quadratic form of maximum pavement deflection, whose parameters are truck loading and speed and pavement temperature. The proposed model utilizes input used in the current AASHTOWare design methods. This allows the integration of the developed model in pavement design and performance prediction while used in pavement life cycle assessment (LCA). Sensitivity analysis showed the reasonableness of the model over a wide range of loading, temperature, and speed scenarios. The estimated EFC for a heavy truck ranged from 0.03% (half loaded, 0 °C, 115 km/h) and 6.5% (fully loaded, 40 °C, 8 km/h). The truck EFC is highly nonlinear and exponentially grows with decreasing speed and increasing temperature.