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SECTION 1. INTRODUCTION

Background

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is currently developing an integrated set of software tools to improve highway design, the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM). The IHSDM is a suite of software analysis tools for evaluating safety and operational effects of geometric design decisions on two-lane rural highways. The IHSDM provides highway project planners, designers, and reviewers in State and local departments of transportation (DOTs) and engineering consulting firms with a suite of safety evaluation tools to support these assessments. As currently implemented in the latest public release version, the IHSDM includes the following five components: (1) Policy Review Module, (2) Design Consistency Module (DCM), (3) Crash Prediction Module, (4) Traffic Analysis Module, and (5) Intersection Review Module. A sixth module, the Driver Vehicle Module (DVM), is a candidate for future release.

The objective of the DVM is to permit the user to evaluate how a driver would operate a vehicle (e.g., passenger car or tractor-trailer) through a geometric design and to identify whether conditions exist that could result in loss of vehicle control (e.g., skidding or rollover). To provide this capability, the module consists of a Driver Performance Model linked to a Vehicle Dynamics Model (VDM), along with other model components needed to provide the necessary information databases. The prototype DVM, which is a time-based simulation model, estimates the vehicle's speed and path along a two-lane rural highway in the absence of other traffic.

During the course of the DVM development project, the DVM development team has engaged in a series of activities, including:

• Developing initial specifications for the DVM.
• Working with the IHSDM software developer to implement the initial specifications.
• Verifying iterative versions of the DVM.
• Calibrating and validating the DVM.
• Testing the DVM using real-world roadway design scenarios.
• Interactively enhancing the DVM and working with the IHSDM software developer to implement fixes and improvements.

Purpose and Organization of this Report

This report provides a complete technical description of the DVM. Specifically, it provides a description of the specification, verification, and calibration/validation of the DVM for the passenger vehicle and the heavy vehicle component, along with additional functionality enhancements.

The report is organized as follows:

• Section 2. Description and Development of the DVM.
• Section 3. Specification of the DVM.
• Section 4. Verification, Calibration, and Validation of the DVM.
• Section 5. Summary and Conclusions.

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FHWA-HRT-08-019

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