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MEASUREMENT OF ROUGHNESS AND SKID RESISTANCE

Roughness is an important indicator of pavement riding comfort and safety

From an auto drivers point of view, rough roads pose the following problems: 1. Discomfort, 2. Decreased speed, 3. Potential vehicle damage, and 4. Increased operational cost.

Similarly from an aircraft pilots viewpoint airfield pavement roughness can cause: 1. Discomfort, 2. Vibration of the instrument panel, and 3. Potentially endanger both the aircraft and its passengers. Therefore, roughness is a condition indicator that should be carefully considered while evaluating primary pavements.

Pavement roughness consists of random multifrequency waves of many wavelength and amplitudes. Longitudinal Roughness has been
defined as the longitudinal deviations of a pavement surface from a true planar surface with characteristic dimensions that affect vehicle dynamics, ride quality and dynamic pavement load. Pavement profiles, detailed recordings of surface characteristics, are frequently used to characterize roughness.

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO ROUGHNESS There are several causes of pavement roughness, which are listed below: 1. 2. 3. 4. Traffic loading, Environment effects, Construction materials, and Built-in construction irregularities

All pavements have irregularities built into the surface during construction, so even a new pavement that has not been opened to traffic can exhibit roughness. The roughness of a pavement normally increases with exposure to traffic loading and the environment

Roughness has two basic types with regard to wavelength: 1. 2. Short-wavelength roughness Long-wavelength roughness

Short-wavelength roughness
Short-wavelength roughness is normally caused by localized pavement distresses, that is, depressions and cracking. Roughness may be further aggravated by traffic. For example: corrugation can cause an increase in dynamic wheel force, which in turn can increase the severity and roughness of that corrugation.

Long-Wavelength Roughness
Environmental processes in combination with pavement layer properties results in long wavelength roughness. Poor drainage, swelling soils, freeze-thaw cycles, and non-uniform consolidation of subgrade may all contribute to surface roughness. Warping and curling of long concrete slabs will also cause roughness.

Roughness Measuring Systems


Several roughness indices are currently in use by highway and airport agencies. These indices are based on the following two roughness measuring system: Roughness indices are determined with the help of road roughness measuring system, i.e.:

Profile-Roughness Measuring Systems


Profile-roughness measuring systems are based on pavement surface profile. Profile-based indicesdetermined by these systems-are repeatable because they are based on mathematical modeling of the measured profile. The use of profile indices has not been very popular in the past due to the historical cost of profile measuring devices. This is no longer the case, and a number of agencies are acquiring profilemeasuring system.

A profile-roughness measuring system involves measuring the profile, filtering the profile to include only those waves of interest, and mathematically computing some type of a roughness index by modeling the response of a standard vehicle or by evaluating the amplitude properties of selected wave bands.

Profile Filtering
A profile consists of different wavelengths, varying from a few inches to hundreds of feet. To analyze a profile for roughness, it is important that the profile to include only those waves of interest. This can be achieved using a technique called the moving average filter. This technique smoothes the profile at each point by averaging the elevation over a selected base length as shown in figure.

A moving average filters out short wavelengths (high frequencies) leaving the longer wavelengths (low frequencies), and thereby smoothes the signal. When analyzing road profile, it is usually desirable to remove the long wavelengths, leaving the roughness associated with the shorter waves.

Profile-Based Roughness Indices


Several Profile-based Roughness indices exists. These are briefly described below:
1

2. 3. 4.

International Roughness Index (IRI) Root Mean Square of Vertical Acceleration (RMSVA) Waveband indices Slope Variance

International Roughness Index (IRI)


The IRI is a standard roughness measurement related to measurements obtained by road meters installed on vehicles or trailers. The IRI is a mathematical model applied to a measured profile.

Root Mean Square of Vertical Acceleration (RMSVA)

The RMSVA is the root mean square (RMS) of a variable called acceleration (VA) associated with rate of change of slope.

Waveband indices
Waveband analysis is used to reduce a road profile to several indices, each quantifying roughness over a given waveband (range of wavelengths). Roughness can be analyzed over short, medium, and long wavelengths.

Slope Variance

The slope variance (SV) is a roughness index based on the change in the slope of a pavement profile. This indicator was first determined at the AASHO Road Test with the profilometer.

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