Fuel savings from road surfaces First publishedon
www.WorldHighways.com A new study by civil engineers at MIT
shows that using stiffer pavements on America’s roads could
reduce vehicle fuel consumption by as much as 3%, that could add
up to US$15.6 billion at today’s oil prices. This would result
in an accompanying annual decrease in CO2 emissions of 46.5
million tonnes. The study, released in a recent peer-reviewed
report, is the first to use mathematical modelling rather than
roadway experiments to look at the effect of pavement deflection
on vehicle fuel consumption across the entire US road network.
By modelling the physical forces at work when a rubber tyre
rolls over pavement, the study’s authors, Professor Franz-Josef
Ulm and PhD student Mehdi Akbarian, conclude that because of the
way energy is dissipated, the maximum deflection of the load is
behind the path of travel. This has the effect of making the
tyres on the vehicle drive continuously up a slight slope, which
increases fuel use. The deflection