Application of mechanical and electromagnetic waves in an integrated determination of pavement bearing capacity

Abstract

The use of expert systems to determine pavement fatigue life (such as backcalculation) is strongly constrained by empirical assumptions. An important obstacle for the development of this research area is a conflict between the complexity of pavement model and actual limitations of methods used to identify its parameters. This article describes the original concept of device, which combines advantages of different methods of testing the pavement needed to calculate its fatigue life. Combined methods are based on the theory of propagation of both mechanical waves and electromagnetic waves in the layered pavement medium. The proposed hybrid solution is the starting point for the development of an expert system based on semi-invasive and non-invasive methods of obtaining the calculation values for parameters of pavement layers. It is believed that backcalculation results based on such identification are characterized by lower uncertainty comparing to the standard approach. As a consequence, the precision of overlay design for pavements will be increased.