Assessment of moisture in road pavements

Abstract

Deterioration on asphalt pavements is affected mainly by traffic and moisture. The traffic on road pavements is responsible by the occurrence of cracks that promotes the pavement deterioration. The moisture decreases the driving comfort and reduces the asphalt-aggregate bond leading to the degradation of the asphalt materials. Additionally, moisture, and especially the moisture inside the asphalt layers, is more difficult to assess than the cracks (visible). Moreover, the diagnosis is difficulted by traffic and the nature of most common investigating techniques. To overcome these difficulties, GPR inspections need to acquire more productive data than layer thickness.

In this way, this communication presents several GPR tests carried out on pavement specimens with different densities and moisture content in order to establish different classifiers that will allow the identification of this condition during regular inspections. Furthermore, tests carried on specimens before and after fatigue tests will allow to calculate similar parameters to estimate the state of conservation of pavements in terms of stiffness and the presence of cracks.