Structural and functional

evaluation
Structural and functional evaluation
• Pavement evaluations are conducted to
determine functional and structural conditions
of a highway section either for purposes of
routine monitoring or planned corrective
action.
• Functional condition is primarily concerned
with the ride quality or surface texture of a
highway section. Structural condition is
concerned with the structural capacity of the
pavement as measured by deflection, layer
thickness, and material properties.
 Need of evaluation
• At the network level, routine evaluations
can be used to develop performance
models and prioritize maintenance or
rehabilitation efforts and funding.
• At the project level, evaluations are more
focused on establishing the root causes of
existing distress in order to determine the
best rehabilitation strategies.
 Functional evaluation
• Visual inspection / Present serviceability
Rating
• Roughness
• Skid resistance
 Visual inspection / Present serviceability
Rating
• Visual condition surveys cover aspects of
both functional and structural pavement
condition, but generally serve as a
qualitative indicator of overall condition
Roughness
MERLIN-A Low-Cost Machine for
Measuring Road Roughness
MERLIN-A Low-Cost Machine for
Measuring Road Roughness
MERLIN
International roughness index (IRI)
 Dipstick

Dipstick, “measures profiles (relative elevation

differences) at a rate and accuracy greater than
traditional rod and level surveys.”
 Skid resistance
• Skid resistance is the force developed when a
tire that is prevented from rotating slides
along the pavement surface
• Skid resistance depends on a pavement
surface’s microtexture and macrotextur
 Skid resistance
• Microtexture refers to the small-scale texture of the pavement
aggregate component (which controls contact between the tire
rubber and the pavement surface) while

• macrotexture refers to the large-scale texture of the pavement as a

whole due to the aggregate particle arrangement (which controls the
escape of water from under the tire and hence the loss of skid
resistance with increased speed)
• For example, a road which has gravel spread on top followed by an
asphalt seal coat will have a high macrotexture, and a road built with
concrete slabs will have low macrotexture.
• For this reason, concrete is often grooved or roughed up
immediately after it is laid on the road bed to increase the friction
between the tire and road.
 Importance of skid resistance
• Skid resistance is generally quantified using some
form of friction measurement such as a friction factor
or skid number.
• In general, the friction resistance of most dry
pavements is relatively high; wet pavements are the
problem. The number of accidents on wet pavements
are twice as high as dry pavements (but other factors
such as visibility are involved in addition to skid
resistance).
 Lock wheel tester
To take a measurement, the vehicle (or trailer) is brought to the
desired testing speed (typically 64 kmph) and water is sprayed ahead
of the test tire to create a wetted pavement surface. The test tire
braking system is then actuated to lock the test tire. Instrumentation
measures the friction force acting between the test tire and the
pavement and reports the result as a Skid Number (SN).
Portable pendulum skid resistance
tester
 Roughness
• Profilometer is a measuring instrument used to measure
a surface's profile, in order to quantify its roughness. Roughness
is a component of surface texture.
• The profile of a road consists of road slopes or grades, connected
by parabolic vertical curves.
• Road pavement Profilometer uses a distance measuring laser
(suspended approximately 30 cm from the pavement) in combination
with an odometer and an inertial unit (normally an accelerometer to
detect vehicle movement in the vertical plane) that establishes a
moving reference plane to which the laser distances are integrated.
• The Profilometer system collects data at normal highway speeds , ie the
speed is kept above 25 kmph, sampling the surface elevations at
intervals of 2–15 cm, and requires a high speed data acquisition system
capable of obtaining measurements in the kilohertz range.
 Profilometers
• The IRI was defined as a mathematical
property of a two-dimensional road profile
(a longitudinal slice of the road showing
elevation as it varies with longitudinal
distance along a travelled track on the
road). As such, it can be calculated from
profiles obtained with any valid
measurement method, ranging from static
rod and level surveying equipment to high-
speed inertial profiling systems.
 Profilometers
• The data collected by a profilometer is used
to calculate the International Roughness
Index (IRI) which is expressed in units of
inches/mile or mm/m.
• IRI values range from 0 (equivalent to driving
on a plate of glass) upwards to several
hundred in/mi (a very rough road).
• The IRI value is used for road management
to monitor road safety and quality issues.
 Profilometers
• Some profilers take
digital photos or videos while profiling the
road. Most profilers also record the
position, using GPS technology.
• Some profilometer systems include
a ground penetrating radar, used to
record asphalt layer thickness.