2011•3rd International Conference on Road Safety and SimulationPurdue UniversityTransportation Research BoardRequires access
Evaluation of the Efficiency of Three-Dimensional Visualization Tools for Detecting Shortcomings in the Coordination of the Alinement´s: A Geometric Highway Project – First Steps
Ana Paula Camargo Larocca, Aurenice da Cruz Figueira, José Alberto Quintanilha, Felipe Issa Kabbach
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Abstract
The use of three-dimensional (3-D) visualization technologies applied in the field of Transportation has contributed not only to accessing the impact of a highway design in the region and its surroundings, but mainly to providing a corrected combination of a horizontal (plan) and vertical alinement (profile) of the highway design. Thus, in the design of highway alignments, horizontal and vertical design elements are necessarily superimposed. Combining the cross-section of the road, which includes hard-shoulders, pavements and their widths and edge markings, results in a three-dimensional design element. The application of these technologies to highway projects, especially in Brazil, and particularly with regard to the design of road projects in public or private areas, almost in its entirety, is still conducted in three stages - the projection of vertical alignment, horizontal alignment and cross sectioning with the use of computational programs which work in a 2-D environment. Taking this scenario as a base, the objective of this study is to investigate and test the effectiveness of three-dimensional visualization tools to identify shortcomings in horizontal coordination and vertical alignment for the geometric design of highways, based on 3-D visualization tools associated with 3-D animation and questionnaires. The evaluation will be in the form of tests conducted with groups of individuals who are Civil Engineering students with no experience in the development of the geometric design of roads. They will evaluate a real stretch of highway in two different situations, with proper horizontal coordination and vertical alignment and with the intended introduction of deficiencies in the design. For this step, software for geometric design of highways providing 3-D visualization of horizontal and vertical alignment will be used. The group of individuals will be submitted to tests supported by videos with 3-D simulation of the driving space in a non-immersive drive-through environment concept.