Influence of Road Pavement Roughness on Carbon Emissions of Vehicular Traffic Travelling at Varying Speeds

Rolling resistance due to road pavement roughness is identified as a factor affecting carbon emission. Existing vehicle carbon emission models tend to ignore the influence of road pavement roughness on driving speed selection. It is important to study the effect of pavement roughness on carbon emission for vehicles travelling at varying speeds, which can aide in better decisions for pavement maintenance and management. This article also leads to determination of speeds with lowest carbon emission along pavements with varying roughness. Present work aims at investigation of effect of road roughness on carbon emission. Stretches with varying roughness between 1.2 to 1.6 m/km are chosen to find the emission of cars travelling at a speed of 10 to 60 kmph. The hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions for stretch with a roughness values of 1.424 were found to be 98% and 0.88% higher respectively as compared to that of stretches with lower roughness values. The carbon dioxide and oxygen emissions for stretch with a roughness values of 1.424 were found to be 16.22% and 0.81% higher respectively. An algorithm is developed for the relationship between roughness and carbon emission for varying speeds of car.