Dynamic Pavement Response Measurement System using Piezoelectric Axle Sensors
Date
2002
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ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Over the past several decades, the transportation of commercial goods in North America has shifted from using railways to using roadways. This came as a result of the recent development of high quality roads reaching the same destinations as the railroads'.
Historically, roadway design has used an empirical approach. Essentially, this technique was adequate in dealing with small vehicles and low volumes of traffic.
Today, however, large vehicles and high traffic volumes are inflicting increasing amounts of damage on many roadways. As such, the idea of developing a mechanistic road modeling approach for design, construction and preservation was conceived. :The ability to determine the Dynamic Deflection Bowl surrounding a rolling wheel is required for the prediction of structural damage.
This thesis presents the Piezoelectric Axle Sensor (PAS) as a possible tool for obtaining the Dynamic Deflection Bowl information. It is a sensor which converts mechanical deformation into a proportional electrical charge, and there are already thousands of these sensors installed in systems world wide, measuring the Dynamic Weights of vehicles. The operation of several different types and orientations of these PAS's were examined and tested. Valuable data was extracted from their outputs. This data allowed the prediction of many, but not all, of the Deflection Bowl characteristics.
For instance, the length and inflection point of the Deflection Bowl along with footprint size were all successfully predicted. The horizontal and vertical components for the two pseudo-rectangular PAS's were combined and found to exhibit the same characteristics as the cylindrical PAS. This research has shown that the outputs from several popular PAS's can be used to generate data useful in planning and maintenance of the nations roadways.
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Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Electrical Engineering