Effect of pavement surface characteristics on vehicle fuel consumption and emission

Environmental impacts related to pavements in the past have focused mainly on materials and construction activities, but ignored other significant processes such as usage stage. Pavement system contributes directly to vehicle operating costs and fuel economy at usage stage due to the rolling resistance at tire-pavement interface, which also affects greenhouse gas (GHG) emission significantly. In this paper, the effect of pavement surface characteristics (roughness, texture, and deflection) on tire rolling resistance was investigated. The HDM-4 model and MOVES software were used to predict fuel consumption and emission caused by different vehicle technologies. Particularly, pavement sections with different levels of surface roughness were used to quantify the benefits of pavement preservation on energy consumption and pollutant emissions. The results indicate that the usage stage plays an important role in the life cycle assessment of pavement system.