Potential Contribution of Deflection-Induced Fuel Consumption to U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Abstract

Various methods have been proposed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with transportation. We investigate the potential of increasing the elastic modulus of pavement surface layers across the entire U.S. pavement network as a means of lowering vehicle excess fuel consumption (EFC) resulting from deflection-induced pavement–vehicle interaction. We show that in a business-as-usual case deflection-induced EFC represents up to 2660 million metric tons (Mt) over a 50-year analysis period. Elastic modulus increases can be accomplished using several currently implementable methods. The analysis shows that increasing the modulus of elasticity using 10% resurfacing in the network per year leads to an 18% reduction of GHG emissions from the pavement network, or 440 Mt CO2eq, over a 50-year analysis period. This would potentially offset 0.5% of the future GHG emission of the whole transportation sector.

Readily Implementable Strategies for Reducing Embodied Environmental Impacts of Concrete Pavements in the United States

“…The development of PEMs and the enhancement of concrete durability are the strategies that can prolong the service-life performance and prevent premature failures ( 19 ). In the use phase, multiple research efforts addressed the effects of pavement–vehicle interaction on vehicle fuel consumption ( 20 – 22 ), urban heat island effect ( 23 ), and concrete carbonation ( 24 ), which can provide carbon offsets. Because the focus of this study was on embodied emissions, these strategies were not explicitly addressed.…”

Coarse recycled materials for the drainage and substrate layers of green roof system in dry condition: Parametric study and thermal heat transfer

“…Likewise, this has raised a demand for using appropriate materials with suitable design recommendations for roof applications to improve the insulation performance of rooftops. To achieve this goal, the green roof implementation instead of a conventional flat roof has been suggested to moderately improve the energy efficiency of dwelling houses in urban regions [1,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Of all types of green roof systems, the extensive green roof applies the smallest load to the rooftops due to its lower thickness and weight [16][17][18].…”

Heat Transfer Measurement within Green Roof with Incinerated Municipal Solid Waste Aggregates

“…Over the past few decades, the rapid increase in urban areas has exerted pressure on the environment owing to the high consumption of natural resources in the construction sector and low energy performance of building envelope components such as walls and roofs. For instance, 60-80% of global energy consumption has been derived from urban areas, even though they occupy only 3% of the Earth's land [1][2][3][4][5]. Since the greatest amount of urban spaces has been covered by roofing systems [6], the use of green roofs as one of the building envelope components has been proposed, and it has been frequently installed in rooftops to broaden the green infrastructure with high energy efficiency in the construction process [7][8][9][10].…”