MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. Specialists of the Don State Technical University (DSTU) have developed a new non-destructive method for assessing the condition of road structures. According to the DSTU press service, the road condition and its residual resource are evaluated by analyzing the actual total dissipation of energy in the road structure during weight dropping tests.
"The team of Artem Tiraturyan, associate professor of the Motorways Department at DSTU, has developed an innovative non-destructive method for assessing the residual resource of road structures based on the analysis of dissipative (energy dissipation-related) processes. According to the developers, the new methodology will make it possible to promptly diagnose the abnormal condition of the roadway," the press service noted.
During the last five years scientists have been studying sections of the federal highway M-4 between Kamensk-Shakhtinsky and Shakhty, as well as on regional roads in Rostov and Krasnodar regions. They used a FWD impact loading unit, which drops a load onto the roadway and special sensors record the reaction of the road surface.
Immediately after the repair, only slight changes in the reaction to the load were observed at first. But by the fourth or fifth year, the energy dissipation rates began to increase dramatically due to visible or hidden anomalies in the layers of the road structure.
"Detecting such damage will make it possible to promptly assess the condition of the road and take targeted repair measures. Patch repair in this case is useless - and is not considered <...> However, regulatory documents allow, for example, replacing the top road layer. <...> Another option is to make an informed decision on reducing the inter-repair period based on information about the real condition of the road surface," Tiraturyan said.
Cement or crushed stone
The experiments also revealed differences between the response of roads with different bases. Rigid bases that are reinforced with cement or bituminous concrete compositions are more likely to crack because the energy is dissipated radially. And gravel-sand, crushed-sand or slag base will keep the road surface from cracking for a long time, but there may be problems with plasticity.
Based on the findings, DSTU road construction workers together with the Department of Information Systems in Construction developed software that allows to assess the actual condition of the road at any stage of its operation even in the absence of data on how many and what kind of cars have driven on the road. The research was funded by a grant from the President of the Russian Federation for the state support of young Russian scientists - candidates of sciences. The Federal Road Agency has taken an interest in the results of the project.