Road surface temperature model accounting for the effects of surrounding environment

Abstract

To facilitate proper snow and ice control operations, it is essential to identify and forecast road surface temperature (RST) and/or road conditions. Our research group has directed efforts towards developing a RST model by utilizing a heat balance method that can account for the effects of vehicular traffic. The basic model closely reproduces the RST variation, but it tends to underestimate RST relative to measured RST. We thought this underestimation might be due to not considering the effect of structures along the roadway, and we developed a revised model that incorporates the shielding effect of roadside structures and long-wave radiation (LWR) emission from such structures. The revised model’s validity was examined by onsite measurement of LWR. The LWR estimated by the revised model showed a root mean square error (RMSE) of 17.8 W m-2 . The RMSE of RST estimated by the revised model was 1.9 degrees Celsius for the whole day, 2.4 degrees Celsius in the daytime and 1.3 degrees Celsius in the nighttime. This is an improvement in RMSE from the basic model by 1.6 degrees Celsius for the whole day, 1.5 degrees Celsius in the daytime, and 1.7 degrees Celsius in the nighttime for the whole period analyzed.