American Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering

2018; 3(2): 24-40

http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ajtte
doi: 10.11648/j.ajtte.20180302.12

Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by Employing

Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools
Sulaymon Eshkabilov*, Abduvokhid Yunusov
Dynamics & Control Lab, Tashkent Institute of Automotive Road Design, Construction and Maintenance, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Email address:
*
Corresponding author

To cite this article:

Sulaymon Eshkabilov, Abduvokhid Yunusov. Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment
Tools. American Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering. Vol. 3, No. 2, 2018, pp. 24-10. doi: 10.11648/j.ajtte.20180302.12

Received: March 26, 2018; Accepted: April 10, 2018; Published: May 11, 2018

Abstract: This paper presents experimental studies from the road profile measurements by employing accelerometers and
international roughness index - IRI assessment tools and practical guidelines with respect to measured acceleration data
processing in terms of digital filter design and conversion of vertical acceleration data into displacement data. In addition, it
shows comparative analysis of measurements with accelerometers and Rod & Level (Leica TS 06 Plus), and gives some
recommendations how to process measured data.

Keywords: Road Profile, Digital Filter, Integration, Acceleration, Accelerometer, IRI

1. Introduction
It is a well-known fact that roads are one of the most vital data/signal processing and hardware (measurement devices
sectors of economy of any nations. Therefore, it is proved and tools) issues. The measured data of the road profile can
that by improving roads, quality of goods and passengers be evaluated by using international roughness index - IRI [1]
transportation will be improved. For this purpose, it is salient and ISO 8608 [2] standards and national or regional
to assess a quality level of road construction and periodic standards some of them are based on the International
diagnostics of road profiles in order to keep sufficient quality Standards. In many studies dedicated to the road profile
of the road pavement and assess necessary assets for measurements, vehicle-road interaction is used as a main
repairing and maintenance of roads. There are a few different approach. Besides, these standardized methodologies, there
methods and tools to evaluate and characterize road are a few other techniques used in practice. All of the
roughness and the longitudinal evenness of a road. One of assessment tools and their indices are cost related.
them is the measuring dynamic effects of the road on a car In this paper, some practical aspects of the vibration
(suspension – axle – un-sprung mass and/or car body-sprung response type of longitudinal road profile measurement by
mass) by employing different measuring devices such as, using single axis accelerometers installed on the front axle
accelerometers, velocity or displacement gauges or high and car body are highlighted. Some emphases on correlations
speed laser/infrared/ultrasonic sensing devices to measure of the IRI assessments of the response type approach and
vertical irregularities of road surface. The other one is to geometry based approach measuring pavement irregularities
measure the geometrical parameters of the pavement by are made. Moreover, some recommendations how to process
using high precision measuring and surveying systems. measured data by employing digital signal filters and
Subsequently, one evaluates the power spectral density (PSD) comparative analysis of terrain measurement tools are
of the longitudinal elevation of the road profile. All of these underlined. In these studies, a vehicle-road interaction
approaches have some pros and cons with respect to each approach to measure experimentally and evaluate
other in terms of precision, accuracy, efficiency, application longitudinal unevenness and assess it via a quarter car model
purpose and cost. The whole issue of profile measurement of the IRI in numerical simulations is used.
and assessment requires two key aspects, which are
25 Sulaymon Eshkabilov and Abduvokhid Yunusov: Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by
Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools

2. Literature Review measurements under Class 3, the acceleration data recorded

from accelerometers (for instance). Numerically, vertical
In many theoretical and experimental studies of a response displacement values from the acceleration by double
type of approach, in evaluating road pavement irregularities, integration or using Fourier Transforms and their inverse can
a quarter car model [3-6] is taken into consideration to model be computed. In both of these approaches, different filtering
the vehicle-road system. Various speeds from 20 to 100 km/h techniques (IIR, FIR, Chebyshev, Butterworth, Moving
are chosen to drive a vehicle on the road subject for studies Average) in order to remove undesired noises from the
and the measurement results are assessed with respect to the measured acceleration data are used. One of the challenging
IRI [1]. It should be noted that the IRI is widely adopted as a issues in this approach is, while computing road profile
main assessment tool or reference tool for evaluating (vertical displacement of vehicle’s axle and body) from the
longitudinal road profiles in many nations around the globe measured acceleration data from accelerometers how to
in order to obtain preliminary calculations and assessments of perform numerical integration, choose appropriate digital
road diagnostics, maintenance costs and quality of newly filters, and tune them.
constructed roads. The quarter car model approach type – IRI
is widely used and adapted. Apart for the quarter car model
approach, half car roughness index [7], full car roughness 3. Mathematical Formulations
index [8] and the ride number [9] approaches are also A quarter car model with Golden Car parameters as
developed and studied. There are several advantages of the specified in the IRI to assess the measured data from the
quarter car - IRI approach. This method is simple and easy to inertial sensing devices (accelerometers) is considered. In
use, fast and cost efficient in evaluations. addition, it is considered that a tire has small or no damping
Some early theoretical studies on road profiles are effect. With these preconditions, the next physical model
dedicated on modeling road profile irregularities by Gaussian (Figure 1) of the system for passive system of a quarter-car
processes [10]. In fact, road profile irregularities cannot be model is drawn.
completely a Gaussian type of noise signal and thus, such
modeling approach is not sufficiently accurate. Thus, a few
other approaches have been proposed to model random
processes of terrain profiles and speed bumps, for instance,
Laplace transforms [3, 11-13]. By this approach, changing
variances of road irregularities are attained randomly. There
is another formulation in this respect that describes road
profile as a series of sinusoid waves [14].
In addition to the above-mentioned approaches, in
assessing longitudinal evenness of the road profile, another
technique considering the weighted longitudinal profile [15]
is proposed. One of the key advantages of this method is that
it encompasses key features of the existing response type of
method along with the geometrical approaches. In recent
studies [16], 3D assessments of the pavements along with the
3D vehicle models are proposed. In these studies, by
employing road mapping equipment, 3D shape of the
pavements is taken that has a few solid advantages over
1D/2D road pavement models, but this approach requires
considerably expensive rotating laser sensors.
According to [17], measuring techniques of the surface
roughness of road profiles are grouped into four classes
based on how directly the measured data correspond to the Figure 1. Quarter-car model according to the IRI [1].
IRI measures. From the poorest to the highest
quality/accuracy, Class 4 – Visual Inspection; Class 3 – From the quarter-car model shown in Figure 1, the
Response Type of Roughness measures; Class 2 – Profile equations of motion of the two mass bodies, which are un-
based approach (laser profile-meters); Class 1 – Profile based sprung mass (half of axle mass and one wheel) and
approach (Rod and Level Dipstick) similar to Class 2. In sprung mass (quarter car body mass) are derived. The
most of the cases, the task in measuring longitudinal road equations of motion of the system (Figure 1) are the
roughness is to obtain relatively high quality of followings (1).
measurements with convenient and less expensive devices. 0
Therefore, measurements with Class 3 type of approach it is (1)

, and
aimed to go up to the level of Class 2 in terms of accuracy.
The response type of longitudinal road profile Where are displacement, velocity and
 International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 2018; 3(2): 24-40 26

respectively; , and are displacement, velocity and

acceleration of the sprung mass (quarter car body mass), measurements to identify accuracy two different response
type of measurements, viz. high precision single axis
acceleration of the un-sprung mass (half of axle mass and one accelerometers from DytranTM and Roughometer III
wheel), respectively; damping coefficients of suspension; developed by ARRB group Ltd against reference
and stiffness of suspension and tire; and are measurements from Total Station 06 of Leica Geo-System™.
masses of the sprung (quarter car) and un-sprung (axle + At first, 100 m long asphalt pavement road is selected and its
tire); is terrain roughness (road irregularities) dependent of surface profile is measured on the 400 equally spaced mark
a vehicle’s speed on the direction. The values of the two points with Total Station 06. Then on the same selected road
displacements are computed by employing numerical two response type measurements are carried out according to
integration methods such as Simpson’s, trapezoidal and the generalized test procedures shown in Figure 2. All of the
Newmark- method [18] as expressed in (2), (3) and (4). The measured data are analyzed according to the generalized data
vehicle is moving on the direction of -axis as depicted in analysis procedures as demonstrated in Figure 3.
Figure 1.
For the measurement tests, reference measurements of the
! ∆#

road profile are taken in each marked point from Total
$
for ( ) 1, Station 06 of Leica Geo-System™ (Figure 4) and all
! ∆#
(2)
$
measurements are performed according to the ASTM
Standard E1364-95 [21]. These measurement data points
with a sampling frequency of 0.25 m per 1 m are considered
for ( ) 1,
+,-

to be a main reference for quality checks of the data from the

(3)
+,-
other two response type of measurements for the IRI
assessment calculations with the Golden Car parameters.
∆#
+
for ( ) 1, (4)
∆. ∆. ∆.
/+0 +
+

Where , are vertical displacement and velocity

computed from the measured acceleration ( ) responses of

0.50 is taken.
the un-sprung (axle) and sprung (car body) masses. For the
Newmark- method, a typical value for
For the IRI calculations, the quantities of un-sprung mass
displacement computed numerically by double integration
according to (2), (3), (4) and Fourier and inverse Fourier
Transforms are used. The road profile roughness in the

values of two displacements , .

expression (1), can be computed from (5) with respect to

34 6- 5-
54 54 54
(5)

It should be noted that the ratios the constant values in (5),

, - , - are relatively small values and thus, the
34 6 5
54 54 54
acceleration, velocity values of the sprung and un-sprung
masses, and can take only displacement of the un-sprung
mass only to compute road profile numerically for further
analysis with the IRI are neglected. Subsequently, the IRI [1]
values are computed numerically from (6) based on the
values of the road profile roughness , and evaluates and
of the axle and car body according to the Golden Car [19,
20] parameters, i.e. , , , , .

787 ∑9< | , , |
9
(6)

The variables , are recomputed using the values of the

variables , and , that are velocity values of the sprung
and un-sprung masses.

4. Experiment and Simulation Results Figure 2. Generalized test procedures.

The experimental studies are composed of three different

27 Sulaymon Eshkabilov and Abduvokhid Yunusov: Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by
Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools

The single axis accelerometers from DytranTM are installed collected with Total Station 06 (Figure 8) are analyzed with
on the right and left sides of the front axle, and car body the IRI assessments (IRI index plot – Figure 8) and the
(frame) of the vehicle (Figure 5). The measured data is calculated IRI index is 3.1828. Moreover, all data are de-
collected via AD Converter DAQ – DT9838 from trended, resample and filtered with moving average (Figure
DATATRANSLATION® and laptop computer (Figure 6). For 8). The resampled data with 0.1 m from the measured data
tests a medium size sedan type of vehicle with good technical has showed IRI index to be 3.35.
conditions is used for response type measurements and It should be noted that it was aimed to have the constant
utilized three single axis accelerometers from DytranTM with speeds of the vehicle at 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 km/h, but
10 gram of weight and reference sensitivity of 10.1, 10.2, and
10.3 mV/g => ! A . The accelerometers are attached
?.@ 3
actual speeds have been slower or faster by 5…10%.
Additionally for comparison purposes, the response type of
with magnetic pads (Figure 5) onto the two sides of the front measurements are carried out with the equipment set of
axle and car body (frame). Roughometer III with the constant speed of 20, 30, 40, 50
km/h that have showed the automatically computed IRI index
values 0.8, 3.3, 3.1, 3.0, respectively.
The IRI values computed by Roughometer III were not
sufficiently stable, for instance at 20 km/h IRI index = 2.0
and at 23 km/h IRI index = 2.0. In addition, it must be noted
that the recommended speed range for this equipment is 40
60 km/h.
The measured accelerations from the single axis
accelerometers on the selected road section at the constant
speed of 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 km/h have showed (Figure 9-
11) that acceleration magnitudes with 1000 Hz sampling
frequency in higher speeds (Figure 10, 11) have gone up
more than with 500 Hz. That can be explained with the fact
that higher sampling frequency enhances higher noise
magnitudes. That can be explained with the vehicle
suspension response on the profile irregularities with a higher
sensitivity.

Figure 4. Reference measurements on the selected road segment with total

station 06 of Leica Geo-System™.

The recorded (raw) acceleration data from the single axis

accelerometers have gone preliminary quality control checks
Figure 3. Generalized data analysis procedures. according to the procedures (Figure 2) in time domain by

[ /C + ] unit. After removing mean values of the data and de-

converting the recorded accelerometer’s data from [V] into
Two test runs are performed for each driving speeds: 20,
30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 km/h with two sampling frequencies of trending them, the data are filtered with the digital filters
500 and 1000 Hz with single axis accelerometers. Similarly, (Table 1), viz. Low-pass IIR (Butterworth), band-pass
measurements with a constant speed of 20, 30, 40, 50 km/h (Butterworth), low-pass Chebyshev, moving-average and
with Roughometer III (Figure 7) in the same 100 m road Low & high pass FIR filter design by constrained least-
section are carried out. This equipment’s acceleration sensor squares filters in order to identify the most fit filter type for
is installed (Figure 7) as recommended in its technical processing of raw data. Parameters of these filters (Table 1)
documentations on the shock absorber of the rear axle. are tuned considering the values of the two natural
The measured reference points (of the road surface profile) frequencies of the vehicle and how the computed vertical
 International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 2018; 3(2): 24-40 28

displacement values would correlate with the reference IRI

index (Figure 8) computed from the road profile
measurements obtained with Total Station 06 of Leica Geo-
System™. In designing digital filters [22], ready to use
functions of MATLAB® are employed directly.
Plots of some selected measured acceleration data at
constant speeds of with single axis accelerometers from the
two sides of the front axle and car frame are shown in Figure
9-11. After filtering the measurement data for each test run
from the single axis accelerometers, vertical displacements
on two sides of the front axle and car body (frame) are
computed. The displacements are computed by cumulative
trapezoidal, trapezoidal, Simpson’s methods, and Fourier and
inverse Fourier transforms in frequency domain. Also, some
numerical analyses are performed how to improve accuracy
of the computed vertical displacement values from
acceleration data by removing a fit model of each computed
data of displacement in time domain. All of the computed
vertical displacements from each test run are used to
calculate IRI index assessments and plotted against reference
IRI index assessment of the road profile data from Total
Station 06. Every set of measurement data undergone the
initial quality has been filtered with the filters (the
parameters given in Table 1) and its IRI index values for right
and left side of the front axle are computed. The computed
IRI index assessments are grouped for 500 and 1000 Hz
sampling frequencies along with the results computed
different integration techniques and used digital filters (Table
2). From the performed numerical analyses, it was clear to
have 500 Hz sampling frequency in collecting data that
would reduce undesired noises in recorded data, ease filtering
of raw data and enhance accuracy of the computed
displacement values.

Figure 5. Installation of accelerometers (left side and right side of the axle,
and car body) to record road excitations.
29 Sulaymon Eshkabilov and Abduvokhid Yunusov: Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by
Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools

Figure 6. Data collection process from the installed accelerometers (left side
and right side of the axle, and car body) to record road profile. Figure 7. Installation and data collection with roughometer III.

Measured road profile with TS 06

0.02

0.01

0
Road profile, [m]

-0.01

-0.02

-0.03
Measured
Detrended
Resampled and MA applied
-0.04
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]
 International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 2018; 3(2): 24-40 30

IRI index assessment of the selected road segment

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]

Figure 8. The road profile roughness measured with Total Station 06 on the selected 100 m road section and its calculated IRI index with the Golden Car.
31 Sulaymon Eshkabilov and Abduvokhid Yunusov: Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by
Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools

Figure 9. Raw acceleration data collected at 20 km/h with sampling frequencies of 500 Hz and 1000 Hz.

Acceleration data @ 38.4994 [km/h] with Fs = 500 Hz

5
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Car Body

-5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Travel time, [s]

4
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Axle (right side)

2

-2

-4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Travel time, [s]

4
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Axle (left side)

2

-2

-4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Travel time, [s]
 International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 2018; 3(2): 24-40 32

Acceleration data @ 40.628 [km/h] with Fs = 1000 Hz

5
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2] Car Body

-5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Travel time, [s]

4
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Axle (right side)

2

-2

-4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Travel time, [s]

4
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Axle (left side)

2

-2

-4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Travel time, [s]

Figure 10. Raw acceleration data collected at the speed of 40 km/h with sampling frequencies of 500 and 1000 Hz.

Acceleration data @ 49.2308 [km/h] with Fs = 500

5
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Car Body

-5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Travel time, [s]

4
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Axle (right side)

2

-2

-4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Travel time, [s]

4
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Axle (left side)

2

-2

-4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Travel time, [s]
33 Sulaymon Eshkabilov and Abduvokhid Yunusov: Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by
Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools

Acceleration data @ 47.0638 [km/h] with Fs = 1000

5
Vertical Acc, [m/s2]
Car Body

-5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Travel time, [s]

4
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Axle (right side)

2

-2

-4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Travel time, [s]

4
Vertical Acc, [m/s 2]

Axle (left side)

2

-2

-4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Travel time, [s]

Figure 11. Raw acceleration data collected at the speed of 50 km/h with sampling frequencies of 500 and 1000 Hz.

Table 1. Filters and their parameters.

Filter type Parameters

Order: 5
Low-pass IIR (Butterworth),
Normalized frequency ratio: 0.025
Pass frequency bands: 0.5 Hz and 30 Hz
Band-pass (Butterworth),
Filter order: 2
Order: 34
Low-pass FIR1 (Chebyshev) Normalized Frequency ratio: 0.5
Chebyshev Window: 35, 30
Window Size: 6
Moving-average Numerator: 2
Denominator: 6
Order of the filter: 45
Low & High pass FIR filter design by constrained Cut-off frequency of 0.3 (normalized one)
least-squares Maximum pass-band deviation from 1 (pass-band ripple) of 0.06.
Maximum stop-band deviation from 0 (stop-band ripple) of 0.001

Table 2. IRI index assessment calculations from the data measured at different speeds and two different sampling frequencies.
IRI index ([mm/m]) and Filter Type IRI index and Filter Type
Test #: speed and sampling frequency (for data sampled at 500 Hz) (for data sampled at 1000 Hz)
L -left side, R -right side of the axle L -left side, R -right side of the axle
20 km/h (500 Hz and 1000 Hz frequency):
1) Cumulative Trapezoidal 4.797 (L); 39.195 (R): Moving Average 4.165 (L); 19.829 (R): Low & High Pass FIR
2) Fourier and inverse Fourier Transforms 2.777 (L); 2.296 (R): Band-Pass Butter 4.716 (L); 5.420 (R): Low Pass FIR1
3) Simpsons’ method 2.785 (L); 2.987 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.023 (L); 2.082 (R): Band-Pass Butter
4) Trapezoidal method 0.240 (L); 0.224 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.178 (L); 2.241 (R): Band-Pass Butter
30 km/h (500 Hz and 1000 Hz frequency):
1) Cumulative Trapezoidal 2.954 (L); 3.305 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.420 (L); 2.327 (R): Band-Pass Butter
2) Fourier and inverse Fourier Transforms 2.259 (L); 2.267 (R): Band-Pass Butter 15.124 (L); 7.965 (R): Low Pass FIR1
 International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 2018; 3(2): 24-40 34

IRI index ([mm/m]) and Filter Type IRI index and Filter Type
Test #: speed and sampling frequency (for data sampled at 500 Hz) (for data sampled at 1000 Hz)
L -left side, R -right side of the axle L -left side, R -right side of the axle
3) Simpsons’ method 2.241 (L); 2.256 (R): Low & High Pass FIR 2.395 (L); 2.343 (R): Band-Pass Butter
4) Trapezoidal method 2.937 (L); 4.753 (R): Low Pass FIR1 3.682 (L); 3.203 (R): Low Pass FIR1
40 km/h (500 Hz and 1000 Hz frequency):
1) Cumulative Trapezoidal 1.996 (L); 2.191 (R): Low & High Pass FIR 2.615 (L); 36.009 (R): Moving Average
2) Fourier and inverse Fourier Transforms 2.501 (L); 2.227 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.264 (L); 2.542 (R): Band-Pass Butter
3) Simpsons’ method 2.072 (L); 2.188 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.110 (L); 2.281 (R): Band-Pass Butter
4) Trapezoidal method 0.899 (L); 3.097 (R): Low Pass FIR1 0.693 (L); 3.906 (R); Low Pass FIR1
50 km/h (500 Hz and 1000 Hz frequency):
1) Cumulative Trapezoidal 2.908 (L); 3.356 (R): Low Pass Butter IIR 8.588 (L); 7.909 (R): Moving Average
2) Fourier and inverse Fourier Transforms 3.900 (L); 2.881 (R): Low Pass FIR1 4.296 (L); 3.628 (R): Low Pass FIR1
3) Simpsons’ method 2.798 (L); 2.774 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.408 (L); 2.597 (R): Band-Pass Butter
4) Trapezoidal method 1.517 (L); 2.032 (R): Low Pass FIR1 2.751 (L); 1.754 (R): Low Pass FIR1
60 km/h (500 Hz and 1000 Hz frequency):
1) Cumulative Trapezoidal 3.255 (L); 6.672 (R): Low & High Pass FIR 4.008 (L); 3.215 (R): Low Pass FIR1
2) Fourier and inverse Fourier Transforms 3.147 (L); 3.781 (R): Moving Average 3.038 (L); 2.924 (R): Band-Pass Butter;
3) Simpsons’ method 2.667 (L); 2.760 (R): Band-Pass Butter 3.040 (L); 2.912 (R): Band-Pass Butter
4) Trapezoidal method 1.771 (L); 1.968 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.266 (L); 1.534 (R): Low Pass FIR1
70 km/h (500 Hz and 1000 Hz frequency):
1) Cumulative Trapezoidal 3.215 (L); 14.059 (R): Low Pass IIR 2.744 (L); 2.663 (R): Band-Pass Butter
2) Fourier and inverse Fourier Transforms 0.601 (L); 0.419 (R): Low Pass IIR 3.074 (L); 3.526 (R): Low Pass IIR
3) Simpsons’ method 2.492 (L); 3.636 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.730 (L); 2.651 (R): Band-Pass Butter
4) Trapezoidal method 0.175 (L); 0.183 (R): Band-Pass Butter 2.590 (L); 2.730 (R): Low Pass FIR1
5) Newmark- method 2.990 (L); 3.081 (R): Band-Pass Butter --

Road profile measured with TS 06 and Accelerometers

0.01

0.005

0
Road profile, [m]

-0.005

-0.01 Measured with TS 06

Resampled
Resampled and MA applied
Measured with Accelerometer

-0.015
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]
35 Sulaymon Eshkabilov and Abduvokhid Yunusov: Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by
Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools

Road profile measured with down-sampled Acceleration data

0.01
Resampled and M A applied
from Accel. on Axle (Right)
0.008
from Accel. on Axle (Left)
from Accel. on Car Body
0.006

0.004

0.002
Road profile, [m]

-0.002

-0.004

-0.006

-0.008

-0.01
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]

Figure 12. Data measured at 20 km/h and 30 km/h, road profile data (collected at 500 Hz and down-sampled at 50 Hz) computed with Newmark-beta method
and Band-pass filter.

Road profile measured with down-sampled Acceleration data

0.02
Resampled and MA applied
from Accel. on Axle (Right)
from Accel. on Axle (Left)
0.015
from Accel. on Car Body

0.01
Road profile, [m]

0.005

-0.005

-0.01

-0.015
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]
 International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 2018; 3(2): 24-40 36

IRI index assessment

0.2

Reference from Total Station

Car Body
0.15 Axle (Right)
Axle (Left)

0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]

Figure 13. At 40 km/h, road profile data (collected at 500 Hz and down-sampled at 50 Hz) computed with Newmark-beta method, and filtered with Band-pass
filter and IRI assessment of the computed profile.

Road profile measured with down-sampled Acceleration data vs. TS06

0.015
Resampled and MA applied
from Accel. on Axle (Right)
from Accel. on Axle (Left)
0.01 from Accel. on Car Body

0.005
Road profile, [m]

-0.005

-0.01

-0.015
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]
37 Sulaymon Eshkabilov and Abduvokhid Yunusov: Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by
Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools

IRI index assessment

0.25

0.2

0.15

0.1
Elevation, [m]

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

Reference from Total Station

-0.15 Car Body
Axle (Right)
Axle (Left)
-0.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]

Figure 14. At 50 km/h, vertical displacement data (D 500 E ) computed with Newmark- method and Band-pass filter, and IRI assessment of profile
computed with Simpsons method.

Road profile measured with down-sampled Acceleration data vs. TS06

0.02
Resampled and MA applied
from Accel. on Axle (Right)
0.015 from Accel. on Axle (Left)
from Accel. on Car Body

0.01

0.005
Road profile, [m]

-0.005

-0.01

-0.015

-0.02

-0.025
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]
 International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 2018; 3(2): 24-40 38

IRI index assessment

0.25

Reference from Total Station

0.2 Car Body
Axle (Right)
0.15 Axle (Left)

0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15

-0.2

-0.25
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]

Figure 15. At 60 km/h, road profile data (D 1000 E ) computed with Newmark- method and IRI assessment of the computed profile computed with
Fourier and inverse Fourier transform methods and band-pass filter used.

Road profile measured with down-sampled Acceleration data vs. TS06

0.02
Resampled and MA applied
from Accel. on Axle (Right)
0.015
from Accel. on Axle (Left)
from Accel. on Car Body
0.01

0.005

0
Road profile, [m]

-0.005

-0.01

-0.015

-0.02

-0.025

-0.03
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]
39 Sulaymon Eshkabilov and Abduvokhid Yunusov: Measuring and Assessing Road Profile by
Employing Accelerometers and IRI Assessment Tools

IRI index assessment

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1
Elevation, [m]

-0.1

-0.2 Reference from Total Station

Car Body
Axle (Right)
Axle (Left)
-0.3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distance, [m]

Figure 16. At 70 km/h, vertical displacement data (D 500 E ) and IRI assessment of the computed road profile with Newmark- method and Band-pass
filter.

From the measured acceleration data at different speeds sampling will influence on the quality of the measured data
and computed vertical displacement sets, and calculated IRI and its processing with filters. Furthermore, it is salient to be
index assessments, it is clear that in lower speeds (20 and 30 careful in selecting the right digital filtering technique and
km/h), there is a convergence of the computed road profile the appropriate integration method. Amongst tested and tuned
shown in Figure 12 with the measured reference profile as digital filters Band-Pass Butterworth filter has showed to be
shown in Figure 8, but the convergence is with some more appropriate than any other filters studied in the
deviations. On the other hand, at higher speeds – 40, 50 and numerical simulations. Newmark- β method is the most
60 km/h, the convergence of the measured profiles shown in appropriate method in computing road profiles with higher
Figure 13, 14, 15 computed with Newmark- β method with accuracy than other studied methods. In the contexts of the
respect to the reference profile are considerably better than paper, it is not shown the obtained fit model with higher
the data measured at about 70 km/h as shown in Figure 16. order polynomial that has been removed from the measured
Similar observations shown in Figure 13, 14, 15 are obtained road profile data.
with IRI index assessments of the computed road profile
data. It should be noted that keeping up a constant speed at 5. Conclusions
higher speeds, like 70 km/h was not feasible for the whole
distance of 100 m. Moreover, it is observed that the The performed studies and measurements on the selected
computed vertical displacements of car axle (measured on the asphalt pavement road in a special road experimental area
right and left sides) and body are well correlated in-between. have demonstrated that measuring road profile roughness
Moreover, it is observed that the measurements with the with the single axis accelerometers is relatively simple and
single access accelerometers in lower vehicle speeds (20, 30 easy to use technique with a higher precision in assessing
km/h) are much higher in accuracy than the measurements road profile with less efforts and small technical skills. It is
obtained from Roughometer III that has some considerable quite simple to calibrate the hardware tools. However, while
limitations and can only give overall IRI assessment. employing this approach a user has to be well aware of the
Whereas, this response type of measurements with fact of careful selection of integration method in computing
accelerometers can give a possibility to measure road profile vertical displacement from the acceleration data. Moreover, it
with certain accuracy along with the IRI index assessment at is salient to choose appropriate type of digital filter with
different speeds. From the studies, it is observed that data well-tuned parameters that influence the quality of data
 International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering 2018; 3(2): 24-40 40

processing. From the performed studies, it is advisable to Engineering, Volume 2014, Article ID 928980,
carry out such studies on a constant speed of around 60 km/h http://dxdoi.org/10.1155/2014/928980.
for roads with asphalt pavement. It should be also noted that [7] M. W. Sayers., “Two quarter car models for defining road
an adequate speed value may be increased or decreased roughness IRI and HRI,” Transportation Research Record
depending on the class of the road pavement. The quality of (1989), 1215, pp. 1-26.
the data filtered with any of the studied filters in this research [8] R. A. Capuruco, T. Hegazy, S. L. Tighe, et.al. “Full-car
can be improved further by computing a fit model and roughness index as summary roughness statistic,”
removing fit model data from the displacement data Transportation Research Record (2005), 1905, pp. 148-156.
substantially. It is recommended to employ a Butter-worth
[9] ASTM E 1489-98, 2003. Practice for Computing Ride
band-pass filter with the frequency bands of 0.5 to 30 Hz, Number of Roads from Longitudinal Profile Measurements
and filter order of 2. made by an Inertial Profile Measuring Device. ASTM
The measurement technique with accelerometers can be International, West Conshohocken.
considered as a second class type of equipment for assessing
[10] M. Agostinacchio, D. Ciampa, S. Olita, “The vibrations
and measuring road profiles due to its precision that can be induced by surface irregularities in road pavements – a
attained by selecting appropriate digital filter and integration Matlab® Approach”, Springer, Eur. Transp. Res. Rev. (2014)
method. Another advantage of this technique with employed 6: pp. 267 – 275, DOI 10.1007/s12544-013-0127-8.
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[11] C. J. Doods and J. D. Robson, “The description of road
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methods such as power spectral density of road roughness,
half-car or full-car model approaches can be also applied. It [12] K. Bogsjo, K. Podgorski, and I. Rychlik, “Models for road
sourface roughness,” Vehicle System Dynamics, 50:725-747,
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Acknowledgements [15] A. Ueckermann, B. Steinauer, “The Weighted Longitudinal
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Part of this research is supported by the state grant # A-3- of Roads,” Road Materials and Pavement Design, Volume 9 –
54 from the State Science and Technology Committee of No. 2/2008, pp. 135-157.
Uzbekistan and Dynamics & Control Lab. [16] A. Ueckermann, M. Oeser, “Approaches for a 3D
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