Prediction of remaining service life for flexible pavement in the Southern Central States using FWD parameters

Abstract

Various Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in the South-Central States and abroad have extensively used Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) surface deflection bowl data. The primary purpose of using deflection-based NDTs in network-level assessment is to identify a section of pavement in need of further investigation at the project level. The falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is a common NDT-based test that is used by transportation agencies to assess the performance of flexible pavement.This research concentrates on simulating the deflection produced by FWD devices using 3-D Move software. Simulations based on software will decrease the need for lengthy FWD testing in the field. In the study, ninety-seven (97) pavement sections from Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas are used for simulation, analysis, and verification of FWD testing. The deflection values produced from software simulations were found to be strongly correlated with field test findings. In addition, the simulated deflection values were used to develop and validate various deflection bowl parameters. In this study, the normalized comprehensive deflection ratio and the normalized comprehensive area ratio are two key characteristics that were validated and produced. Eventually, load-induced impacts using these parameters are effectively analyzed in order to anticipate the remaining service life of flexible pavement structures. The prediction of the remaining service life will be an efficient tool for different DOTs and transportation agencies to initiate the rehabilitation work in time and economically.