Evaluation of Accelerometers to Determine Pavement Deflections under Traffic Loads

• The purpose of this work was to study the use of accelerometers to measure pavement deflections due to traffic loads. To this end, accelerometers were embedded in two sites: the full scale load simulator Circular Test Track (CTT) and the A1 motorway in Switzerland. Deflections were derived from acceleration measurements using an algorithm that double integrates the measured signal and corrects any errors derived from the procedure. In the motorway, deflections were monitored using a set of three magnetostrictive deflectometers. Additionally, the pavement's material viscoelastic parameters determined in the laboratory were incorporated in Finite Element (FE) models to estimate the theoretical deflections. The calculated deflections were then compared to the measured and to the theoretical deflections. Deflections calculated from acceleration showed a reasonable qualitative correlation to those measured by magnetostrictive deflectometers. In addition, the FE models revealed the inability of the accelerometers to measure very slow or quasi-static motion.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Infrastrukturteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Infrastructure Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Pavement deflections

Accelerometers

Deflectometers

Finite elements

Pavement modelling

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)