ROAD SURFACE DESCRIPTION AND VEHICLE RESPONSE

The paper is concerned with the determination of vehicle response due to traversal of a road surface described by means of the concepts of random process theory. The relevant response theory is developed, first, in terms of a four-variate excitation and then in terms of the possible simplifying assumptions. The relationship between excitation and the road profile is explained. Roads are described in terms of single profiles, profile pairs and then, using the concept of isotropy, complete surfaces. The validity of the isotropic hypothesis is considered.