Lateral Placement of Vehicles on Horizontal Curves

The deterioration of pavement is a significant factor which adds to its life cycle cost. This is mainly due to wear and tear of the pavement caused due to wheels of vehicle and environmental factors. This deterioration is mainly observed at maximum wheel path on the pavement. The maximum wheel path is identified by conducting placement survey of vehicles. A review of literature indicates that lot of studies related to placement of vehicle in straight stretch is available whereas on curves it is very less. This has motivated the authors to conduct a placement study on horizontal curves. About 8 locations (paved and unpaved) in Bangalore city was identified for the present study. The data was analyzed for general placement and placement with respect to the type of vehicles for varying width and radius. It was found that as the curve radius increases the percentage shift was found to decrease. The vehicles were generally observed to shift towards center with increase in road width on curves. The placement of commercial vehicles was modeled by a probability distribution function and this was modeled as Johnson SB distribution.