Pavement Texture Evaluation and Relationships to Rolling Resistance at MnROAD

Measurements of pavement surface texture were conducted on the test cells at the MnROAD research facility. The testing was performed using a mobile, line-laser-based, texture profiler that provides results in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. In addition to common texture metrics-for example, mean profile depth (MPD)-a variety of other metrics are calculated and reported. This includes the texture level in third-octave wavelength bands (the texture spectrum) and metrics that can distinguish between upward and downward oriented texture (for example, skew). These texture metrics are combined with other pavement surface characteristics measured on the same MnROAD test cells into a single database. The other surface characteristics are coefficient of rolling resistance (CRR), roughness, friction, and tire-pavement noise. Using the results in the database, multivariable linear regression analyses are conducted to investigate the dependency of the CRR on the other surface characteristics. The performance of the various regression analyses is compared and variable combinations yielding good performing models for CRR are presented. Among the conclusions is that many possible combinations of surface characteristic variables are shown to be eligible for a model to predict CRR.