Comprehensive Evaluation of Five Sensors Used for Pavement Monitoring

Details

• Creators:
  Tandon, Vivek ; Nazarian, Soheil
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Texas at El Paso. Center for Geotechnical and Highway Materials Research
• Corporate Contributors:
  Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Accelerometers Calibration Geophones Linear Differential Equations Monitoring Nondestructive Tests Performance Sensors Testing Transformers
• Publication/ Report Number:
  913-1 F, Volume 1
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Texas ; United States
• Edition:
  Volume 1
• Corporate Publisher:
  Texas Transportation Institute. Texas A&M University
• Abstract:
  The Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) and Dynaflect devices are presently being used by highway agencies. The primary function of the FWD and Dynaflect devices is to measure a deflection basin due to a load imparted to the pavement. Deflection basins measured in the field are used in backcalculating modulus profiles of pavement sections. As such, it is critical to determine the deflection basins in the field with great accuracy Velocity transducers (also called geophones) are used to determine the deflections, and load cells are utilized to measure applied load. It has become increasingly important in recent years to be able to evaluate the performance of the deflection and load sensors of the Falling Weight Deflectometer or the Dynaflect devices. It has been shown that a small error in the deflections measured in the field may yield significantly erroneous modulus values. As such, a very reliable method for evaluating the accuracy of the sensors used for determining these deflections is necessary. If geophones are used to determine de-flections, the algorithm developed for calculating deflection will also become important. A geophone measures the so-called "raw" particle velocity of the pavement surface directly underneath it. Therefore, the methodology and algorithm employed to obtain the "actual" displacement must be carefully considered. Errors in the load cell measurements are not as important but should be avoided for reliable results. In this report, the results of an all-around evaluation of five sensors which are commonly used in pavement engineering area are presented. These sensors are: an accelerometer, a LVDT, a proximeter, a geophone and a laser optocator. In the evaluation process, factors such as, cost, accuracy, precision, field-worthiness and ease of mounting were considered. It was found that the geophones are the most suitable sensors amongst the five sensors evaluated.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  913
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:853eb24f4ea77eb9d80742426793d538c14e2709a5a5000cc0a1e5e9d19449bd9f01235ce0eb939d872dce0ea2d4f9ee09ab32c455ddb99bb1c57e448000484b
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/86094/dot_86094_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.96 MB ]