Use of falling weight deflectometer multi-load data for pavement strength estimation

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Use of FWD multi-load data for pavement strength estimation
• Creators:
  Kim, Y. R. ; Park, H.
• Corporate Creators:
  North Carolina State University. Department of Civil Engineering ; United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Pavement performance
  • Falling weight deflectometers
  • Materials tests
  • Performance tests
  • Deflection
  • FWD(Falling weight deflectometers)
  • Falling weight deflectometers
  • Fatigue(Materials)
  • Flexible pavements
  • Loads(Forces)
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA/NC/2002-006
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  North Carolina
• Edition:
  Final Report; July 1999 - June 2001
• Corporate Publisher:
  North Carolina. Dept. of Transportation
• Abstract:
  The objective of this study is to develop a mechanistic-empirical method for assessing pavement layer conditions and ; estimating the remaining life of flexible pavements using multi-load level Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) deflections. A ; dynamic finite element program, incorporating a stress-dependent soil model, was developed to generate the synthetic deflection ; database. Based on this synthetic database, the relationships between surface deflections and critical pavement responses, such as ; stresses and strains in each individual layer, have been established. A condition assessment procedure for asphalt pavements that ; uses multi-load level FWD deflections has been developed using these relationships. The verification study was conducted using ; field data. The results indicate that the proposed procedure can estimate the base and subgrade layer conditions. It was found ; from the study for the nonlinear behavior of a pavement structure that an FWD test with a load of 12 kip or less does not result in ; any apparent nonlinear behavior of the subgrade in aggregate base pavements. The study also indicated that the deflection ratio ; obtained from multi-load level deflections may predict the type and quality of the base/subgrade materials. With regard to the ; condition assessment of the asphalt concrete (AC) layer, the AC layer modulus and the tensile strain at the bottom of the AC ; layer were found to be better indicators than deflection basin parameters. ; The procedures for performance prediction of fatigue cracking and rutting were developed for flexible pavements. The ; drastically increasing trend in fatigue cracking with time may not be predicted accurately using the proposed procedure. Such ; trends may be due to the environmental effects and the inconsistent distress measurements. Predicted rut depths using multi-load ; level deflections show good agreement with measured rut depths over a wide range of rutting. However, the procedure using ; single load level deflections consistently underpredicts the rut depths. It was concluded that the rutting prediction procedure ; using multi-load level deflections can estimate an excessive level of rutting quite well and, thus, improve the quality of prediction ; for rutting potential in flexible pavements. ; The layer condition assessment procedure and the remaining life prediction algorithms developed in this project were ; incorporated into APLCAP (Asphalt Pavement Layer Condition Assessment Program) version 2.0, the VisualBasic program ; developed under the NCHRP 10-48 project.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  HWY-00-04
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/5253/dot_5253_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.63 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:245f78c2b35fef222bdf996c1255782a9072cbd777dbbadf34711f56028236bb