Abstract
Public road infrastructure is developed all around the world. To save resources, ensure public safety, and provide longer-lasting road infrastructure, structural health monitoring (SHM) applications for roads have to be researched and developed. Asphalt is one of the largest used surface materials for the road building industry. This material also provides relatively easy fiber optical sensor technology installment, which can be effectively used for SHM applications—road infrastructure monitoring as well as for resource optimization when road building or their repairs are planned. This article focuses on the research of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) optical temperature and strain sensor applications in road SHM, which is part of the greater interdisciplinary research project started at the Riga Technical University in the year 2017. Experimental work described in this article was realized in one of the largest Latvian road sites where the FBG strain and temperature sensors were installed into asphalt pavement, and experiments were carried out in two main scenarios. Firstly, in a controlled environment with a calibrated falling weight deflectometer (FWD) to test the installed FBG sensors. Secondly, by evaluating the real-time traffic impact on the measured strain and temperature, where different types of vehicles passed the asphalt span in which the sensors were embedded. The findings in this research illustrate that by gathering and combining data from calibrated FWD measurements, measurements from embedded FBG optical sensors which were providing the essential information of how the pavement structure could sustain the load and information about the traffic intensity on the specific road section, and the structural life of the pavement can be evaluated and predicted. Thus, it enables the optimal pavement future design for necessary requirements and constraints as well as efficient use, maintenance, and timely repairs of the public roads, directly contributing to the overall safety of our transportation system.
Highlights
Public roads with asphalt surface material are typically considered as a structure that is exposed to the vibration, strain, and temperature impact on a daily basis
The total duration of load pulse initiated by falling weight deflectometer (FWD) equipment drop is 30.35 ms, and load peak value 51.09 kN is achieved at 16.5 ms
The strain that was measured with the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor embedded 25 mm under the FWD load of 6 drops is illustrated in Figure 6 (in scenario—when the center of the FWD load plate was located 900 mm after FBG sensor)
Summary
Public roads with asphalt surface material are typically considered as a structure that is exposed to the vibration, strain, and temperature impact on a daily basis. Journal of Sensors possibilities [6] It is achieved by ensuring a real-time observation and collection of an accurate measurement data related to the structural integrity of the monitored structure or component using transducer technologies. Within the SHM framework, it is possible to detect the damage or specific parameters of interest, initially allowing the responsible authority to react before any serious structural damage has propagated [4]. The complexity of pavement materials due to composition uncertainty, temperature sensitivity, viscoelasticity characteristics [2], and level of compaction [7] is an issue hampering the development of effective means for damage detection and monitoring of road structures
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