Influence of pavement macrotexture on PM < inf> 10 emissions from paved roads: A controlled study

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2012

Abstract

This paper investigates influence of pavement macrotexture on paved road PM 10 emissions. This study was conducted on different paved roadway types (local, collector and minor arterial) in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada. Pavement macrotexture was measured using the ASTM E 965 sand patch method and the Digital Surface Roughness Meter™ (DSRM™). A controlled constant soil loading with known PM 10 fraction was applied to cleaned road surfaces. The Desert Research Institute's (DRI) Mini-PI-SWERL™ (Portable In-Situ Wind ERosion Lab) was used to estimate PM 10 mass emissions and cumulative mass emitted from pavement surfaces. PM 10 mass emissions using controlled applied soil loadings generally declined with increasing pavement macrotexture at all applied shear levels. The relationships were statistically significant, and indicate that pavement macrotexture may need to be included in future development of revised paved road PM 10 emissions factors. A change in the slope of emitted PM 10 mass and pavement macrotexture occurred between 0.8 and 0.9 mm mean texture depth (MTD). Anomalies in PM 10 mass emissions were observed at MTDs exceeding 1.2 mm. Two-way frequency distributions of pavement surface features obtained from DSRM measurements were analyzed to explain the observed anomalies. Results showed that pavement surface feature size distributions may influence on PM 10 emissions from paved roads at similar MTDs. PM 10 mass emissions were found to linearly depend on adjusted mode size of the pavement surface aggregate. A sharp decrease in friction velocities, computed from wind erosion theory, at MTDs above 0.9 mm matched an observed sharp decrease in PM 10 emissions rates at MTDs above 0.9 mm, indicating that classical wind erosion theory could be adapted for non-erodible pavement surfaces and linearly relate PM 10 emissions rates to applied shear stress at an aerodynamic roughness height of 0.075 mm. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Publication Title

Atmospheric Environment

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS