Longitudinal strain analysis in asphalt pavement under full-scale moving loads

T The roadway networks have been played a vital role in the development of all countries. The assessments of pavement conditions during their service life are therefore decisive to maintain the stable performance of the network. From this point of view, pavement instrumentation allows monitoring pavement conditions continuously and without traffic interruption. The study aims to illustrate the effectiveness of embedded strain gauges and temperature probes to follow the pavement responses with different traffic speeds, traffic loads and temperature conditions. The longitudinal strain signals are then examined with regards to representative parameters of the loading times and strain amplitude. The results show that the traffic load levels and asphalt temperature are directly responsible for the change of strain amplitudes, while those have almost no impact on loading times. Numerical simulations are also introduced to validate the applicability of both layered elastic and viscoelastic models to the strain signals observed in the field.