Pavement Evaluation System

Pavement evaluation plays an important role in the establishment,implementation and development of transportation (pavement) management system (TMS/PMS). With the rapid expansion of highway network in China,pavement cost becomes a big concern for engineers in the planning,design,construction,operation,and rehabilitation of highways. A a result,pavement evaluation has gained more and more attentions for decision-makers in the allocation of limited resource in highway agencies.This thesis reports a comprehensive research effort on pavement evaluation system. Based on field investigation of pavement conditions in the 2nd phase of Guangbei Section of National Highway 108 (Beijing to Kunming),an E-R (entity-relational) model database was developed to help organize the numerous data measured in the real road. Field investigation includes traffic volume,axle loads,types,amount,and severity of pavement distress,measurement of deflection of pavement highway structure,and pavement sampling. Recorded pavement distresses include (but not limited to) fatigure cracking (alligator cracking),rutting,long structural cracking. Def lectoin tests were performed every 20m along the whole section using Bekelam method. Loading was applied thorough trucks loaded with granular materials to specifed amount. Due to the huge accumulation and dynamic nature of pavement state data,computer-based storage and analysis of pavement condition is the only feasible approach to get real time information for decision-makers in all levels of highway agencies. The developed database system can perform insertion,updating,deletion and visits of pavement condition records. Evaluation of pavement state can be achieved using pavement condition index,structural strength index,or synthesized index which is proposed in this research. Gray theory is recommended for the evaluation of pavement condition when large samples and complete data are not available. Using Microsft Visual C++,a pavement state evaluation system was developed and integrated with pavement E-R database system. The GUI (graphic user interface),OOP (object-oriented programming),windows-based,standalone program can be used for highway agencies in transportation management process as a whole and pavement maintenance decision-making in particular including pavement state evaluation and structural overlay design. Primary parts of the application include open database connection (ODBC,which facilitates application program visits source data independent on DBMS,data base management system),application program,drive manager,ODBCdrivers,ODBC API and data source. Pavement state data collected from field investigation was used as source data for real application. The open architecture of Web-based pavement CIS system was also proposed for further development of pavement state evaluation system.Based on field investigation and computer-aided analysis,pavement conditions in the 2nd phase of Guangbei Section of National Highway 108 is identified as premature failure. Major distress type includes rutting,fatigue cracking,and structural cracking. The evaluation program developed can communicate with pavement condition database system through DLL (dynamic link library),perform evaluation of pavement conditions,and conduct overlay when necessary. The structural strength evaluation method proposed in this thesis can provide reliable results. Gray theory can improve the precision of pavement evaluation by constructing Makov-chain based transitional probability matrix of pavement structures. Successive,dynamic supervision,long-term data collection of pavement distresses are recommended for further research to enhance management proficiency and improve overall pavement quality in similar regions.