Influence of Class A40 Type Autonomous Truck on Rutting and Fatigue Cracking

Abstract

Abstract Effect of autonomous trucks’ different lateral wander modes have been analysed in this research using a dload subroutine. Two lateral wander modes, a zero-wander mode in which a truck is programmed to follow a predetermined wheel path without any lateral movement and a uniform wander mode, where the truck uniformly distributes itself along the lateral width of the lane, are used. European class A40 truck has been modelled in ABAQUS. The effect of all the axles with varying loading and tire pressures has been studied while observing the microstrains under the asphalt layer and on the top of subgrade layer at speeds of 90 Km/h. Results show that fatigue life of pavement increases by 1.45 times if a uniform wander mode is used, which corresponds to a decrease in fatigue life of 14 months if a zero-wander mode is used. In case of rutting progression, 40% acceleration of rutting happens under a zero-wander mode. In case of uniform wander mode, rut depth decreases by 1.25 times against the zero wander mode.