Estimation of friction coefficient of asphalt concrete road surfaces using the fuzzy logic approach

Abstract

Vehicle speeds have increased very dramatically with new developments in today’s automotive industry, and thus the friction behavior of roads has become very important from the safety point of view. The main aim of this paper is to estimate the friction behavior of asphalt concrete road surfaces at any speed using the fuzzy logic approach. Friction is defined in the paper, and the effects of road surface characteristics, mainly macrotexture and microtexture properties, on the friction behavior of asphalt concrete road surfaces are explained. The data measured from the different asphalt concrete road pavements (on Belgium road networks) representing different road surface characteristics are analyzed for estimating the friction behavior of roads. Both the multiple linear regression analysis and the fuzzy logic approach are used to estimate the friction coefficient of asphalt concrete road surfaces. The two approaches are compared, and it is shown that the fuzzy logic approach precisely estimates the friction coefficient of asphalt concrete road surfaces at any speed better than multiple linear regression analysis. It is possible that there is a strong relation between the asphalt concrete road surface characteristics, mainly macrotexture and microtexture, and friction.Key words: asphalt concrete road surfaces, friction, fuzzy estimation.