Determinação do índice de irregularidade do pavimento por análise de vibrações

Abstract

The sidewalks, due to vehicle traffic, wear out as they are used, and as a way to monitor this wear and maintenance, the responsible entities control the sidewalk condition from the sidewalk irregularity index (IRI). This index proposed by the World Bank Group (WBG) quantifies the quality of the sidewalk, and can be calculated by several methods in order to catalog the road according to the IRI value. The objective of this work is to determine this index by measuring the vibration of the moving, suspended and unsuspended parts of a car. To do this, an analytical model that represents a vehicle was used, using as basis equations of motion, originated from the area of vibrations. This model was transcribed to MATLAB, and compared to a model developed through the Finite Element method, in order to verify the accuracy of the analytical model. Subsequently, a calculation routine for IRI was implemented through MATLAB, in order to only use the model's dynamic responses when traversing tracks that have their IRI already determined through the comparative methods listed. These methods are through the ProVAL software and the method proposed by Sayers et al. (1986), which use as input data for the calculation the profile of the runway to be analyzed. The comparative results between the analytical and numerical models show similar behavior between methods, confirming the accuracy of the analytical model. The calculation of the IRI through the routines, on the other hand, presents values very close or even equal to the compared methods, with variations below 0.5% for both methods. The use of the characteristics of a common vehicle to calculate the IRI shows different results from the characteristics proposed by the bibliography for this type of simulation, attesting that the application of this method for field calculation will require a way to make the vehicle analogous to the one proposed by the bibliography.