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Publication Details

Simplified Techniques for Evaluation and Interpretation of Pavement Deflections for Network-Level Analysis: Guide for Assessment of Pavement Structure Performance for PMS Applications Research/Reference: useful for researchers doing further work in the pavement area as well as those developing improved testing and design procedures. Includes documents of historical value.

Primary Topic: Pavement Evaluation

Description: The objective of this study was to develop an approach for incorporating techniques to interpret and evaluate deflection data for network-level pavement management system (PMS) applications. The first part of this research focused on identifying and evaluating existing techniques, seeking out those that were simple, reliable, and easy to incorporate into current PMS practices, as well as those that produced consistent results. The second part of the research detailed the development of guidelines for the application of recommended techniques and procedures for determining optimum falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test spacing and data collection frequency. While there are many viable techniques available for evaluating the structural capacity of pavements that use FWD for project-level analysis, many of these techniques are time consuming and require an experienced analyst. As a result, using pavement deflection testing for network-level analysis has been limited to date. This guide provides information for the assessment of pavement structural performance for PMS applications. It reflects the general findings presented in the accompanying final report, Simplified Techniques for Evaluation and Interpretation of Pavement Deflections for Network-Level Analysis (FHWA-HRT-12-023).

FHWA Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-12-025

Publication Year: 2012

Document Links: HTML  PDF (file size: 1 mb)



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Updated: 04/11/2022
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