Pavement Structural Capacity from Traffic Speed Deflectometer for Network Level Pavement Management System Application

Abstract

Structural number (SN) represents the structural capacity of a flexible pavement system to sustain anticipated traffic and is among the structural indices most commonly used by pavement design engineers in the U.S. Effective structural number (SN_eff) is an indicator of structural capacity of in-service pavement sections and is conventionally estimated from nondestructive testing (NDT) device data such as falling weight deflectometers (FWDs) using methods such as suggested by AASHTO. In addition to pavement design, structural condition is a critical input for the selection of maintenance and rehabilitation strategies in pavement management system (PMS) application. However, use of SN in network level application has not been practical because of limitations of FWD such as stop-and-go operation, lane closures, and low testing frequency. The traffic speed deflectometer (TSD), a continuous deflection device, has recently been gaining worldwide application as a reliable NDT device for network level PMS applications. The objective of this study is to develop a practical approach to compute and utilize SN of in-service flexible pavements from TSD data for network level PMS applications. The study is based on the fundamental that, for the same pavement, SN_eff from the TSD using the proposed method should be in good agreement with SN_eff from the FWD using AASHTO method. The developed method was field validated with TSD and FWD data collected at in-service pavement sections. In addition, the use of structural number ratio, defined as a ratio of SN_eff to required SN, in network level prioritization of structural capacity improvements was illustrated.