Potholes are holes in the roadway caused by excessive wear.

Invariably, potholes occur in

the main stretch of the vehicle travel lanes and are very hard to avoid. Potholes have
ragged edges and tend to be up to 6 inches deep. Typically, potholes damage the upper
layer of roadway without affecting the underlying concrete base

Potholes are caused by water seeping into the cracks of a roadway. This
seepage slowly undermines the integrity of the road surface. Cracks in
the road surface tend to form in areas where tires most frequently meet
the pavement in travel lanes. In addition, stress to the roadway from
heavy traffic weakens the asphalt road base. Once the roadway is
weakened, cracks form in the pavement allowing rainwater to seep in. A
hard winter also can cause cracking of the asphalt surfacing. Repeated
episodes of freezing and thawing expands and contracts any water
inside the roadway cracks. The intense heat from the hot summer sun
can also weaken the pavement of a heavily traveled roadway. Both can
cause an increase in the width of the cracks, which ultimately results in
the collapse of a small section of road. Once the collapse happens, a
pothole is born.

Features

Potholes tend to be round but can take on just about any shape
imaginable. The major difference between a pothole and its much larger
cousin, the sinkhole, is that a pothole doesn't undermine the underlying
concrete base of a road. Sinkholes, on the other hand, are a complete
collapse of the roadbed, including the underlying ground layers.
Repair
Weather greatly affects pothole repair. In the summer, repair crew use a
hot asphalt patch to replace the missing pavement. All debris and old
asphalt is removed and hot asphalt is placed in the pothole and
smoothed into the proper form. This fills in the hole and adheres to the
underlying concrete base. In addition to repairing potholes, crews will
also repair roadway cracks to help prevent future potholes from
forming. Cold weather pothole repair differs greatly. Hot asphalt cannot
be used because it will not cure in low temperatures. Instead, repair
crews use a resurfacing material called cold mix. Cold mix is composed
of material similar to asphalt that forms a solid and dependable patch.
Repair crews also revisit these cold patch areas in warmer months to
check for any maintenance needs.
Considerations
Road maintenance crews check the roadway for any drainage problems
to determine if there are any remedies to prevent pothole formation.
Standing water is the primary cause for roadway cracking. Curbs and
drainage ditches are checked for blockages and reassessed during
times of heavy rain. Evaluating the entire drainage system of a road
helps prevent recurrent potholes and subsequent damage to vehicles.

1. Warning
2. Water filled, snow filled or ice filled potholes can damage the
rims and tires of a car. It is important to check the road during
stressful weather conditions carefully to give yourself time to avoid
hitting a pothole. Driving directly through a pothole is a jarring,
noticeable event. Many news stations now post pothole reports on
their websites in addition to reporting these driving hazards on their
newscasts. Of course, if you do hit a pothole, make sure to note it's
location and contact your state or county road repair agency with a
report.

LITERATURE SURVERY ON BELLOWS

Case 1 : Application of Neurofuzzy in the development of Road Bum designs, S.A.

Oke, A.O. Johnson, T.A.O.Salau, and A.O. Adeyefa, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, University of Lagos,Akoka-Lagos, Nigeria,

Abstract :

This contribution is on the development of a neurofuzzy model that aids in capturing

imprecision and uncertainty in the various road bump parameters. Road bumps are
structures built on roads to act as obstructions to vehicles plying these roads. The
neurofuzzy methodology is used to check the vehicle speeds to acceptable standards.
Particular use is made of neurofuzzy since it is an improvement on the traditional model
proposed earlier in the literature. The work is motivated by the need for a more reliable
and easily understandable methodology that guides decision makers in making correct
decisions in a timely manner. The results obtained demonstrate that it is feasible to apply
the model in practice. The paper is new in that it proposes a novel approach to
quantifying the results of road bump design in order to achieve worthy and reliable result.

Case 2 : The effect of Road surfacing condition on tyre life,W.JVDM STEYN and
M HAW, CSIR Trasportek, PO Box 395,Pretoria, 0001, Bridgestone SA(Pty) Ltd.
Abstract :
Road engineers usually maintain roads with the objective of supplying a road surface
with a certain serviceability standard. This serviceability standard typically include
aspects such as the allowable rutting, skid resistance and riding quality of the road. While
the road is performing within the set requirements for functional and structural
performance, the road is deemed to be in a serviceable condition. Once these parameters
are exceeded the road will be maintained using an option ranging from simle patching of
potholes and sealing of cracks to a reseal of the road or even recycling and rehabilitation
of the failed sections of the road.

These maintenance actions affect the surfacing of the road and therefore the experience of
the tyre in contact with the road surface. Tyres are typically designed to operate under
specific conditions that include the applied vehicular load, tyre inflation pressure,
temperature, allowable tyre deflection etc. It is generally assumed that as long as the road
surface is relatively even and the vehicle not overloaded, the tyres will not be
overstressed using the road.

Tyre engineers conduct route studies on routes to determine the stresses and strains that a
tyre will experience when traveling along the specific route. The route studies include an
evaluation of concepts such as the rutting on the road, but also focus on factors causing
undue stresses and strains on a tyre using the road. These include the excess heat built up
as a tyre has to transverse uneven surfaces and potholes, the stresses caused by varying
surface textures due to differences in road surface type and patches in specific wheel
lanes, and the subsequent reduction in tyre life due to use on a specific route.

In this paper some of the aspects typically investigated in such a route study are
highlighted, and the typical factors affecting the tyre life discussed. The paper is partly
based on experiences with various routes in the country and it aims to highlight to road
engineers and roads authorities the major role that they can play in potentially extending
the lives of tyres using their roads, and ultimately in the national economy through lower
transport costs and improved safety conditions.
Case 3 : Estimation of fatigue damage caused by actual roads and maneuvers on
proving ground G.H. Farrahi A, Khalaj, School of Mechanical Engineering,
Shariff University of Technology, Tehran, iran, Automotive Industries Research and
Innovation Center of Saipa, Iran

Abstract : The objective of this paper is to estimate the cumulative fatigue damage in a
vehicle component and to calculate the number of cycles driven on the proving ground to
achieve the equivalent accumulated fatigue damage in design life.
In order to achieve the objective Ground events are provided to simulate using ADAMS
software. The load time history results were applied to an FEM model created in
MSC/Nastran. Modal transient dynamic analysis was used to obtain the stress time
history in the test component. The results showed that fast cornering has a greater
damage effect than slow and moderate cornering. For primary evaluation of fatigue life
the cornering analysis sufficient. The proving ground events had much more destruction
effect than actual roads as the fatigue damage accumulated on our test component.
Driving 1568 cycles(2462km) on a proving ground was equal to driving 200000km on
actual roads.

Case 4 : Assessing tire forces due to radway unevenness by the pothole dynamic
amaplification factor method . A.V.Pestereva, L.A. Bergman, C.A. Tan, B. Yang,
Institute for systems analysis, Russian Academy of Science,Pr.60-letiya Oktyabrya 9,
Moscow 117312, Russia,

Abstract
A technique is developed to assess the dynamic contact forces arising after passing road
surface
irregularities bya vehicle modelled as a general linear MDOF system. The equations
governing vibration of a vehicle moving along an uneven profile are, first, transformed to
the state-space form and, then, to a system of uncoupled first order complex differential
equations. For a local roadway irregularity described functionally, solutions of all
equations are found analytically and expressed in terms of a unique function of one
complex variable, the so-called pothole dynamic amplification factor, which is specific to
the irregularity shape. The solutions obtained are combined to give dependencies of the
harmonic components of the contact forces arising after the passage of the irregularity on
the vehicle speed and irregularity dimensions. The problem is shown to be decomposed
into separate calculation of vehicle and pothole-specific data. The technique developed is
not specific to a particular vehicle model or an irregularity shape: the vehicle model
is represented byits mass, stiffness, and damping matrices, and the replacement of one
irregularity by another simply requires replacement of one dynamic amplification factor
function by another. The latter are derived in Appendix A for several pothole
configurations. The discussion is amply illustrated by examples of the application of the
technique to the calculation of the tire forces for two simple vehicle models and several
potholes of different shape.

Case 5 : Wheel Lift-Off and Ride Comfort of Three-wheeled Vehicle over Bump
T R Gawade, Dr. S Mukherjee, Prof D Mohan, Department of Mechanical
Engineering IIT Delhi, New Delhi,110016.

An in-plane five degree of freedom (dof) mathematical model of a three-wheeled vehicle

(TWV) is used to study the influence of bump profiles on occupant injury. The model is
validated against vertical acceleration measured when an instrumented TWV is passed
over a road bump. Half sine wave, harmonic and cycloidal bump profiles of the same
peak height and span are considered. The simulation results indicate that wheel lift-off
over bump occurs at the lowest initial longitudinal velocity for cycloidal profile.
Estimation using the dominant acceleration peak indicates that even at wheel lift-off
speeds, the predicted
accelerations are below the tolerance limits. A frequency domain indicates that the level
of sustained vibration does not exceed the ISO 2631 and BS 6841 tolerance limits.