Learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non-contact texture measurements: Comparative assessment

Ensuring highway safety relies heavily on pavement friction resistance. To enable network-level pavement skid resistance monitoring and management, this study proposes a non-contact three-dimensional laser surface testing method to obtain detailed aggregate surface data. The existing contact-based s...

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Main Authors: Xiuquan Lin, You Zhan, Zilong Nie, Joshua Qiang Li, Xinyu Zhu, Allen A. Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2025-06-01
Series:Journal of Road Engineering
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2097049825000162
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author Xiuquan Lin
You Zhan
Zilong Nie
Joshua Qiang Li
Xinyu Zhu
Allen A. Zhang
author_facet Xiuquan Lin
You Zhan
Zilong Nie
Joshua Qiang Li
Xinyu Zhu
Allen A. Zhang
author_sort Xiuquan Lin
collection DOAJ
description Ensuring highway safety relies heavily on pavement friction resistance. To enable network-level pavement skid resistance monitoring and management, this study proposes a non-contact three-dimensional laser surface testing method to obtain detailed aggregate surface data. The existing contact-based skid resistance measurement methods suffer from poor reproducibility and repeatability, hindering their application for network-level management. In this research, traditional multiple linear regression and four machine learning methods, support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), and convolutional neural network (CNN), are utilized to evaluate and predict pavement frictional performance. To assess the proposed methods, data from 45 pavement sites in Oklahoma, including 6 major preventive maintenance (PM) treatments and 7 typical types of aggregates, are collected. Parallel data acquisition is conducted at highway speeds using a grip tester and a high-speed texture profiler to measure pavement skid resistance and surface macro-texture, respectively. Aggregate properties are captured in 3D using a portable ultra-high-resolution 3D laser imaging scanner, leading to the calculation of four types of 3D aggregate parameters characterizing the micro-texture of aggregate surfaces. The relationship between pavement surface friction and texture is explored using machine learning models. The results reveal that the random forest and gradient boosting decision tree models exhibit the highest accuracy, SVM and CNN perform moderately, while the traditional linear regression method fares the worst. By assessing the importance of the 38 parameter variables, the most critical 21 variables were selected for model development. Test results demonstrate that the GBDT model exhibits the best predictive performance, with an explanatory capability of 87.4​% for road friction performance. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of replacing contact-based pavement friction evaluation with non-contact texture measurements, offering promising prospects for a network-level pavement skid resistance monitoring and management system.
format Article
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institution OA Journals
issn 2773-0077
language English
publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
record_format Article
series Journal of Road Engineering
spelling doaj-art-36bae8a29a3c44e9add1f785b9541f592025-08-20T02:02:51ZengKeAi Communications Co., Ltd.Journal of Road Engineering2773-00772025-06-015220221210.1016/j.jreng.2024.11.003Learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non-contact texture measurements: Comparative assessmentXiuquan Lin0You Zhan1Zilong Nie2Joshua Qiang Li3Xinyu Zhu4Allen A. Zhang5School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China; Highway Engineering Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, ChinaSchool of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China; Highway Engineering Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China; Corresponding author. School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China.School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China; Highway Engineering Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, ChinaSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USAKey Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, ChinaSchool of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China; Highway Engineering Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, ChinaEnsuring highway safety relies heavily on pavement friction resistance. To enable network-level pavement skid resistance monitoring and management, this study proposes a non-contact three-dimensional laser surface testing method to obtain detailed aggregate surface data. The existing contact-based skid resistance measurement methods suffer from poor reproducibility and repeatability, hindering their application for network-level management. In this research, traditional multiple linear regression and four machine learning methods, support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), and convolutional neural network (CNN), are utilized to evaluate and predict pavement frictional performance. To assess the proposed methods, data from 45 pavement sites in Oklahoma, including 6 major preventive maintenance (PM) treatments and 7 typical types of aggregates, are collected. Parallel data acquisition is conducted at highway speeds using a grip tester and a high-speed texture profiler to measure pavement skid resistance and surface macro-texture, respectively. Aggregate properties are captured in 3D using a portable ultra-high-resolution 3D laser imaging scanner, leading to the calculation of four types of 3D aggregate parameters characterizing the micro-texture of aggregate surfaces. The relationship between pavement surface friction and texture is explored using machine learning models. The results reveal that the random forest and gradient boosting decision tree models exhibit the highest accuracy, SVM and CNN perform moderately, while the traditional linear regression method fares the worst. By assessing the importance of the 38 parameter variables, the most critical 21 variables were selected for model development. Test results demonstrate that the GBDT model exhibits the best predictive performance, with an explanatory capability of 87.4​% for road friction performance. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of replacing contact-based pavement friction evaluation with non-contact texture measurements, offering promising prospects for a network-level pavement skid resistance monitoring and management system.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2097049825000162PavementSkid resistanceNon-contact texture measurementMachine learning
spellingShingle Xiuquan Lin
You Zhan
Zilong Nie
Joshua Qiang Li
Xinyu Zhu
Allen A. Zhang
Learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non-contact texture measurements: Comparative assessment
Journal of Road Engineering
Pavement
Skid resistance
Non-contact texture measurement
Machine learning
title Learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non-contact texture measurements: Comparative assessment
title_full Learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non-contact texture measurements: Comparative assessment
title_fullStr Learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non-contact texture measurements: Comparative assessment
title_full_unstemmed Learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non-contact texture measurements: Comparative assessment
title_short Learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non-contact texture measurements: Comparative assessment
title_sort learning models for predicting pavement friction based on non contact texture measurements comparative assessment
topic Pavement
Skid resistance
Non-contact texture measurement
Machine learning
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2097049825000162
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AT zilongnie learningmodelsforpredictingpavementfrictionbasedonnoncontacttexturemeasurementscomparativeassessment
AT joshuaqiangli learningmodelsforpredictingpavementfrictionbasedonnoncontacttexturemeasurementscomparativeassessment
AT xinyuzhu learningmodelsforpredictingpavementfrictionbasedonnoncontacttexturemeasurementscomparativeassessment
AT allenazhang learningmodelsforpredictingpavementfrictionbasedonnoncontacttexturemeasurementscomparativeassessment