Using Central Tire Inflation Systems To Decrease Vehicular Damage To Forest Roads PDF Download

Central tire inflation technology is a vehicle control system that enables truck drivers to vary tire inflation pressures as necessary to improve mobility and reduce damage to weaker road structures. In July and August 2000, the Departments of Transportation of Saskatchewan and Manitoba jointly conducted two controlled field experiments near Wynyard, Saskatchewan to evaluate the impact of reduced tire inflation pressures on earth and thin membrane-surfaced municipal roads. One experiment evaluated damage rates for a two-lane municipal road trafficked by identically loaded trucks using normal highway and reduced tire inflation pressures. Concurrently, a second two-lane municipal road was trafficked by two groups of trucks carrying the same total payload: one group was loaded to primary highway axle weights and employed reduced tire pressures, and the second group was loaded to secondary highway axle weights and employed normal highway tire pressures. The two-lane roads facilitated side-by-side comparisons of road damage. This paper documents an analysis of Benkelman beam rebound data and surface rutting data collected on the earth roads during the experiment. Statistical tests on the Benkelman beam rebound data show that increases in deflection can be reduced or delayed when lower tire pressures are used. Additionally, statistical tests on the rut depth of the inner wheel path provide evidence that rutting damage can be reduced or delayed when lower tire pressures are used. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E211271.