Wavelength Sensitivity of a Connected Vehicle Method of Ride Quality Characterizations

Abstract

Researchers previously demonstrated that a roughness index called the road impact factor (RIF) is directly proportional to the international roughness index (IRI) when measured under identical conditions. A RIF-transform converts inertial signals from connected vehicle accelerometers and speed sensors to produce RIF-indices in realtime. This research examines the relative sensitivities of the RIF and the IRI to variations in dominant profile wavelengths. The findings are that both indices characterize roughness from spatial wavelengths up to 2 meters with equal sensitivity. However, the RIF transform maintains its sensitivity when characterizing roughness from wavelengths beyond that. The case studies used a certified inertial profiler to collect both RIF and IRI data simultaneously from five different pavement surface types. The RIF/IRI proportionality factors distributed normally among the profiles tested. This result affirms that the RIF and IRI generally agrees. However, differences in the dominant profile wavelength among pavements will produce some spread in the degree of roughness that the indices express.