Dynamic analyses of traffic speed deflection devices

Abstract

Two traffic speed deflection devices (TSDDs) that measure surface deflections at posted traffic speeds (up to 80–96 kph) were evaluated through a recent Federal Highway Administration project that included field trials at the MnROAD facility. Four geophones were embedded near the pavement surface to measure surface deflections during field trials at each of three MnROAD cells. In addition, the MnROAD facility counted with numerous other sensors such as strain gauges to measure pavement responses and thermocouple trees to collect pavement temperature at various depths. For the implementation of TSDDs in any network-level pavement management system, it is important to utilise a proper analytical model that can accommodate moving load and viscoelastic properties of pavement layers in the simulation of TSDD measurements. The 3D-Move software was chosen for this purpose. The viscoelastic properties used for the asphalt concrete (AC) layer include dynamic modulus and damping coefficient as a function of frequency relevant to the temperature at the time of the MnROAD field trials. The field trials and available data represented realistic field case scenarios to validate once more 3D-Move specifically for TSDD measurements. The proposed dynamic analytical model provided a good match with a variety of independent pavement responses that included surface deflection bowls (measured using embedded geophone sensors) as well as horizontal strains at the bottom of the AC layers (measured using MnROAD sensors).