Truck Platooning on Flexible Pavements in Illinois

Abstract

Truck platoons have many benefits over traditional truck mobility. Truck platoons have the potential to improve safety and reduce fuel consumption between 5% and 15%, based on platoon configuration. In Illinois, trucks carry more than 50% of freight tonnage and constitute 25% of the traffic on interstates. Therefore, expected fuel savings would be significant for trucks. Deployment of truck platoons within interstate highways may have a direct effect on flexible pavement performance, as the time between consecutive axle loads (i.e., resting time) is expected to decrease significantly. Moreover, platoons could potentially accelerate pavement damage accumulation due to trucks’ channelized position, decreasing pavement service life and increasing maintenance and rehabilitation costs. The main objective of this project was to quantify the effects of truck platoons on pavements and to provide guidelines to control corresponding potential pavement damage. Finite-element models were utilized to quantify the impact of rest period on pavement damage. Recovered and accumulated strains were predicted by fitting exponential functions to the calculated strain profiles. The results suggested that strain accumulation was negligible at a truck spacing greater that 10 ft. A new methodology to control pavement damage due to truck platoons was introduced. The method optimizes trucks’ lateral positions on the pavements, and an increase in pavement service life could be achieved if all platoons follow this optimization method. Life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis were conducted for fully autonomous, human-driven, and mixed-traffic regimes. For example, for an analysis period of 45 years, channelized truck platoons could save life cycle costs and environmental impacts by 28% and 21% compared with human-driven trucks, respectively. Furthermore, optimum truck platoon configuration could reduce life cycle costs and environmental impacts by 48% and 36%, respectively, compared with human-driven trucks. In contrast, channelized traffic could increase pavement roughness, increasing fuel consumption by 15%, even though platooning vehicles still benefit from reduction in air drag forces. Given that truck platoons are expected to be connected only in the first phase, no actions are required by the agency. However, in the second phase when truck platoons are also expected to be autonomous, a protocol for driving trends should be established per the recommendation of this study.