Pavement rutting performance analysis of automated vehicles: contribution of flexible pavement layers’ characteristics

Designing and implementing appropriate pavement structures in the era of coexisting automated vehicles (AVs) and human-driven vehicles (HDVs) is a significant concern for researchers and road practitioners. This necessitates investigating the pavement performance subjected to the various loading distribution scenarios induced by different lateral movement patterns of AVs. It is known that the pavement layers' thickness and material influence pavement performance. This study used a finite element method (FEM) to model AVs' loading distributions and simulate the rutting performance of a full-depth flexible pavement structure constructed in different layers' thicknesses and materials. The results revealed that the layers' thickness and material contribution depend on the lane distribution scenario and the AVs' wander mode. In some AV scenarios, improving the layers' material and increasing the thickness could help reduce the pavement rutting damage compared to HDV scenarios, with the extent of this effect influenced by AVs' wander mode.