While the impact of truck platooning on traffic safety, fuel consumption, freight transport efficiency etc. was addressed in several
research projects, its impact on road infrastructure, in particular bridges, was completely neglected so far. This collaborative project
(EMPA and EPFL) intends to close this gap. The investigation method is to:
- use existing traffic data, literature and simulations tools, developed and used in previous AGB projects (see reports VSS 655, VSS 682,
VSS 686) to generate traffic scenarios including parametrized platoons (different penetration rates, number of vehicles forming a
platoon, flowing vs jammed traffic)
- use generate traffic scenarios to critically assess and classify by importance the different potential effects related to platooning, such
as dynamic issues, braking, fatigue, critical bridge components (bridge deck, pylons, bearings, expansion joints and abutments)
- study in more depth the most important effects, and the influence on them of more parameters:
- vertical traffic loads and degradation by fatigue of either bridge components and/or in the expansion joint regions (RESSLab)
- braking forces, considering different synchronization mechanisms between vehicles of a platoon (Empa).
The results will be new load models for design and assessment (SIA 269/1), means to evaluate and identify critical platooning scenarios
on existing Swiss highway bridges. It will serve as a reference for future studies on other effects of platooning on the infrastructure.
