Monitoring road pavement performance through a novel data processing approach, accelerated pavement test results

Abstract

This research presents a novel performance-based interpretation method for continuous monitoring of pavement condition through the use of piezoelectric sensors. The objective of this study is to validate the compressed cumulative loading event approach, implemented in a previously developed piezoelectric sensor, for detecting subsurface fatigue cracking through full-scale accelerated pavement testing. A piezo-electric film of polyvinylidene fluoride is used to harvest the microstrain energy induced by the traffic loading at the surface. Epoxy is used to protect the sensor following a H-shape packaging. Piezoelectric sensors were exposed to approximately 1.0 million load repetitions between November 2017 and February 2018 at the IFSTTAR carrousel in Nantes, France. Reference strain measurements were recorded with two types of commercial strain gauge. Results from the full-scale test have successfully validated the novel approach for detecting subsurface cracking in asphalt concrete pavements. Finally, the piezoelectric sensors were able to detect damage progression and severity through the number of open threshold levels.