Skid resistance is a significant feature that provides consistent traffic safety management for road pavements. An appropriate level of Skid resistance describes the contribution that the pavement surface makes to tire/road friction, and the surface of the road pavement can reduce vehicle operation cost, traffic accidents, and fatalities, particularly in wet conditions. Wet conditions decrease the level of the skid resistance (pavement friction), and this may lead to serious struggles related to driving on the road pavement (e.g., skidding or hydroplaning), which contributes to higher crash rates. The knowledge of skid resistance is essential to ensure reliable traffic management in transportation systems. Thus, a suitable methodology of skid resistance measurement and the understanding of the characterization of the road pavement are key to allow safe driving conditions. This paper presents a critical review on the current state of the art of the research conducted on skid resistance measurement techniques, taking into account field-based and laboratory-based methodologies, and novel road sensors with regard to various practices of skid resistance, factors influencing the skid resistance, the concept of the minimum skid resistance and thresholds. In conclusion, new trends that are relevant to data collection approaches and innovative procedures to further describe the data treatment are discussed to achieve better understanding, more accurate data interoperability, and proper measurement of skid resistance.
1 January 2016 in Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics
The changing climate with resulting more extreme weather events will likely impact infrastructure assets and services. This phenomenon can present direct threats to the assets as well as significant indirect effects for those relying on the services those assets deliver. Such threats are path-dependent and place-specific, as they strongly depend on current and future climate variability, location, asset design life, function and condition. One key question is how climate change is likely to increase both the probability and magnitude of extreme weather events under different scenarios of climate change. To address this issue, this paper investigates selected effects of climate change and their consequences on structural performance, in the context of evolving loading scenarios in three different continental regions: Europe, North America, and Asia. The aim is to investigate some main place-specific changes of the exposure in terms of intensity/frequency of extreme events as well as the associated challenges, considering some recent activities of members of the IABSE TG6.1. Climate change can significantly affect built infrastructure and the society by increasing the occurrence and magnitude of extreme events and increasing potential losses. Therefore, specific relationships relating hazard levels and structural vulnerability to climate change effects should be determined.
30 November 2010 in International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics