Mechanistic Back-calculation of the LTE of Jointed Pavements at the Corridor Level from TSD Deflection Velocity Measurements: Collected Case Studies

AUTHORS: Scavone, M.; Katicha, S.; Flintsch, G.; and Amarh, E.

ABSTRACT: The recent unveiling of the Fourth-Generation Traffic-Speed Deflectometer (TSD), capable of reporting deflection velocity data at a 5-cm spatial resolution, led to the development of a mechanistic approach to back-calculate the structural properties of jointed concrete pavements and estimating the transverse joints’ Load Transfer Efficiency (LTE) index. This analysis technique would finally enable pavement managers to get an insight into the structural health of in-service rigid pavements as rich as that that could be obtained for flexible pavements from a deflection survey with the TSD.
Following the release of this TSD data analysis tool, the opportunity arose to improve its computational performance and thus bolster its applicability for corridor-level evaluations. This paper introduces and discusses these computational enhancements and demonstrates the back-calculation technique’s usability by presenting its results for three jointed pavement segments: a concrete track within a research facility and two open-to-traffic highway corridors. These examples show that, aided by the TSD, the pavement manager can now estimate the LTE of every joint in an in-service concrete corridor, and consequently, detect and correct the structurally weak ones, without disrupting the normal flow of traffic, thus bolstering the concrete pavement’s preservation while maintaining its level of service to users at the same time.