Empirical approach for estimating the pavement transition probabilities used in non-homogenous Markov chains

An empirical approach is proposed to estimate the transition probabilities associated with non-homogenous Markov chains typically used in developing stochastic-based pavement performance prediction models. A reliable pavement performance prediction model is a key component of any advanced pavement management system. The proposed empirical approach is designed to account for two major factors that cause the transition probabilities (i.e. deterioration rates) to increase over time. The first major factor is the progressive increase in traffic loading as represented by the equivalent single axle load applications. The second major factor is the gradual decline in the pavement structural capacity which can be represented by an appropriate pavement strength indicator such as the structural number. The proposed empirical model can recursively estimate the non-homogenous transition probabilities for an analysis period of (n) transitions by simply multiplying the first-year (i.e. present) transition probabilities by two adjustment factors, namely the load and strength factors. Once the empirical model is calibrated, these two factors can capture the impact of traffic load increases and gradual pavement structural losses on the transition probabilities over time. The calibration process requires the estimation of the model two exponents to be obtained from the minimisation of sum of squared errors wherein the error is defined as the difference between the observed and predicted pavement distress ratings (DRs). The predicted DRs are mainly estimated based on the state probabilities, which are recursively derived from the non-homogenous Markov model. A sample empirical model is presented with results indicating its effectiveness in estimating the pavement non-homogenous transition probabilities.     

The non-stationary response of flexible pavements to moving loads

In this paper, the pavement surface deterioration is investigated based on field measurements of surface roughness profiles obtained in Sweden. A predictive function for surface deterioration, based on average gradient of yearly measurements of the road surface profile in Swedish road network, is proposed. In order to characterise the dynamic loads induced on the pavement by moving traffic a quarter car model is used. Afterwards a non-stationary stochastic approach is used to obtain the yearly response of the pavement to moving loads. The solution is in frequency–wavenumber domain and is given for a non-stationary random case as the pavement surface deteriorates in pavement service life thus influencing the magnitude of the dynamic loads induced by the vehicles. The effect of pavement surface evolution on the stress state induced in the pavement by moving traffic is examined for a specific case of quarter car model and pavement structure. The results showed approximately a 100% increase in the dynamic component of stresses induced in the pavement.     

Simplified approach for structural capacity evaluation of flexible pavements at the network level

Pavement surface deflection has been used by several highway agencies to assess the structural condition of the pavement structure. Falling weight deflectometer, deflectograph and other devices are commonly used to measure the deflected shape of the pavement surface under loading. Several parameters have been derived from the measured deflection bowl to evaluate pavement structural condition; however, there is no universally agreed parameter that can reliably rank the structural condition of the highway network. In addition, each pavement type deflects differently under traffic loads. Therefore, it is not possible to have one single scale to evaluate and rank pavement structural capacity for all different types. In this research paper, four different scales were developed to evaluate structural capacity of different flexible pavement structures. The area ratio, deflection ratio and their normalised values were derived from the deflection bowls of both field measured deflections and computer simulated data.     

Calibration of HDM-4 models for Indian conditions of flexible pavement having modified bitumen in wearing course

India is developing her national highway network through widening and rehabilitation of existing highways along with the construction of expressways in different phases, since 1999. Unprecedented growth of road traffic, high variations in pavement temperature and need of long lasting pavements have increased the use of modified bitumen specifically in wearing courses of many flexible pavement road sections of national highway network in entire country. Crumb rubber-modified bitumen (CRMB) and polymer-modified bitumen (PMB) of different grades are mostly used modified binders under different climatic and environmental conditions. During the design life, bituminous road sections show different rates of initiation and propagation of distresses under varying traffic and climatic conditions. In this study, an effort has been made to calibrate the internationally recognised Highway Development & Management (HDM-4) road deterioration models for the selected flexible pavement sections over time with traffic. The different road distresses are modelled using HDM-4 tool for the newly constructed flexible pavement sections of Indian national highway network having modified binder in bituminous concrete (BC) mixes which are located in different regions of the country. Pavement condition data of 23 in-service flexible pavement sections were collected for three consecutive years starting from 2011 to end of the year 2013. Data collected from the study were analysed for calibration and validation of HDM-4 distress models for similar climatic conditions, pavement compositions and traffic loading characteristics. The results of this study are useful for developing pavement maintenance management strategies for Indian national highway network with similar climatic conditions, pavement compositions and traffic characteristics.     

Probabilistic prediction models for crack initiation and progression of spray sealed pavements

Cracking is one of the primary distress modes in spray (chip)-sealed pavement surface performance and its prediction is a major concern for pavement engineers. In order to identify, manage and asses effectively and efficiently cracked pavement at a network level, a probabilistic modelling approach is utilised to develop cracking initiation and progression models. This study aims to predict the probability of pavement cracks occurring using a binary logistic model and cracks progression over time using an ordinal logistic regression model. These models have been developed to take into account the effect of variations among observations, among sections and among highways. Readily available historical time series data (from 2004 to 2011) from 40 highway segments have been collected and prepared for modelling. These time series include surface cracking as a performance parameter and traffic loading, expansion potential of subgrade soil, climate condition, condition of drainage system and pavement strength as predictor parameters. Cracking data include all types of cracking: transverse, longitudinal and crocodile cracking and is reported as a percent of the affected area. The study estimates the probability of crack initiation at a certain time and predicts the probability of a pavement maintaining its current level of cracking. It is found that with the 50% estimated probability, about 82% of the observations are correctly predicted by the crack initiation model and 65% of the observations are correctly predicted by the crack progression model. The study has concluded that the effect of time is stronger than the other variables on crack initiation and progression. Also, the effect of traffic loading is stronger than the effect of initial pavement strength in crack initiation phase. However, the effect of pavement strength at any time is stronger than the effect of traffic loading in crack progression phase. The predicted probabilities have been successfully validated using another data-set from the same network and the results indicate that the developed probability models are well estimating the crack conditions and have the ability to predict future conditions accurately.     

Fourier-finite element analysis of pavements under moving vehicular loading

With the goal of predicting progressive pavement distress (damage and rutting) under millions of cycles of moving vehicular loading, an efficient analysis framework is developed by combining the ideas of Fourier transform, finite element discretisation and time-scale separation. Using the simple observation of time-scale separation between evolution of pavement damage/rutting, temperature variation and traffic load variation, the analysis under millions of cycles is reduced to a few hundred analyses of stress and strain evolution under a single cycle of moving load. A new method called Fourier-finite element (FFE) method is proposed for each independent stress analysis. Essentially, Fourier analysis is used to eliminate the time dimension as well as the spatial dimension in the direction of traffic, reducing the problem to a set of two-dimensional problems, which are in turn solved using the finite element method (FEM). The FFE method is more efficient than direct three-dimensional (3D) FEM by orders of magnitude, but captures the 3D effects in an accurate manner. The FFE stress analysis technique is combined with time-scale separation-based ideas to develop a pavement performance modelling framework. A 20-year pavement simulation is presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed framework.     

Environmental burdens of regular and long-term pavement designs: a life cycle view

In this study, 20-year and 40-year designs of common pavement types in USA at three traffic levels are examined for their environmental burdens, including hot mix asphalt pavement, jointed plain concrete pavement and continuously reinforced concrete pavement. The study first introduced a previously built life cycle assessment model in pavement engineering and then performed the detailed modelling for each pavement design, with special efforts devoting to the delay estimation of in the congestion module and the usage module (roughness effect on the fuel economy). In the context of this study, regarding the multiple environmental indicators, it is found that 40-year pavement designs do not necessarily carry environmental advantages over their 20-year counterparts, being only possible at ‘high’ traffic volumes. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the influences of stress developing rate, recycling, feedstock energy of asphalt binder and maintenance strategy are less significant compared to that of traffic volume. In the life cycle inventory, material module and usage module are two dominating contributors; share of congestion module due to construction and maintenance activities grows quickly with the increase of traffic volume.     

Dynamic analyses of traffic speed deflection devices

Two traffic speed deflection devices (TSDDs) that measure surface deflections at posted traffic speeds (up to 80–96 kph) were evaluated through a recent Federal Highway Administration project that included field trials at the MnROAD facility. Four geophones were embedded near the pavement surface to measure surface deflections during field trials at each of three MnROAD cells. In addition, the MnROAD facility counted with numerous other sensors such as strain gauges to measure pavement responses and thermocouple trees to collect pavement temperature at various depths. For the implementation of TSDDs in any network-level pavement management system, it is important to utilise a proper analytical model that can accommodate moving load and viscoelastic properties of pavement layers in the simulation of TSDD measurements. The 3D-Move software was chosen for this purpose. The viscoelastic properties used for the asphalt concrete (AC) layer include dynamic modulus and damping coefficient as a function of frequency relevant to the temperature at the time of the MnROAD field trials. The field trials and available data represented realistic field case scenarios to validate once more 3D-Move specifically for TSDD measurements. The proposed dynamic analytical model provided a good match with a variety of independent pavement responses that included surface deflection bowls (measured using embedded geophone sensors) as well as horizontal strains at the bottom of the AC layers (measured using MnROAD sensors).     

横肋波纹钢板-方钢管混凝土组合柱双向偏压力学性能研究及承载力计算

为研究横肋波纹钢板-方钢管混凝土组合柱的双向偏压力学性能,对两根横肋波纹钢板-方钢管混凝土组合柱试件展开了双向偏压加载试验,探究了不同偏心距对试件在双向偏压荷载下的荷载-变形曲线、破坏模态和截面应变发展状况的影响,分析了波纹板与钢管、混凝土之间的相互作用机理.在试验基础上运用有限元模拟,分析了偏心距、加载角度、钢管厚度...     

Wheel tracking rutting performance estimation based on bitumen Low Shear Viscosity (LSV), loading and temperature conditions

The development of new technologies and road pavement materials require the evaluation of the asphalt mixture performance. Rutting is one of the main modes of failure of asphalt mixtures; it is typically studied at the laboratory through the wheel tracking test (WTT). Weather and traffic conditions (temperature, loads) significantly affect the pavement rutting performance. The bitumen rheological properties also have a main role in mixture rutting response; they can adequately characterized by the bitumen Low Shear Viscosity (LSV). The estimation of rutting performance appears as a useful decision tool to optimize pavement design process. This paper studies the rutting performance of asphalts mixtures utilising the WTT. The specimens were tested at different temperatures and loading levels to simulate different climatic and traffic pavement conditions. A performance estimator was developed including temperature and traffic load on the pavement, and LSV of the binder as input data.     

Optical fibre-based sensors for distributed strain monitoring of asphalt pavements

Strain distribution of asphalt pavement varies in transverse and longitudinal directions, and distresses, such as cracks, ruts and settlements, often occur randomly, which can be efficiently measured by distributed optical fibre sensing technology. As bare optical fibre is weak to resist shear and torsion forces during pavement construction, the protective technique is required. Therefore, a flexible asphalt-mastic packaged optical fibre sensor was developed in this research for distributed strain monitoring of asphalt pavement. Theoretical analysis on strain transfer of the optical fibre-based sensors embedded in asphalt pavement was conducted to improve the design of the protective layer and remove the strain transfer error. Afterwards, laboratory tests on the asphalt concrete beam were carried out to validate the performance of the sensor. Finally, the proposed sensors were applied to detect the in situ performance of urban asphalt pavement under temperature and traffic loads. The results indicate that the proposed optical fibre sensor detects the distributed strain of asphalt pavement effectively, and the in situ data show significant effects of temperature and traffic loads on asphalt concrete course. This research contributes to the full-scale monitoring and health assessment of large-span pavement.     

Influence of selected WMA additives on viscoelastic behaviour of asphalt mixes and pavements

Warm mix asphalt additives are effective in decreasing production, laying and compaction temperatures of asphalt mixes. However, there are still questions concerning influence of warm mix additives on properties of asphalt mixes and pavement performance. This paper presents results of the comprehensive research of viscoelastic behaviour of asphalt mixes and pavement structures with layers made with warm mix asphalt additives at high temperatures. Two additives of significantly different effects on mixes at higher temperatures were selected for analysis, namely aliphatic synthetic wax produced with the use of Fisher–Tropsch method and formulation of surfactant- based molecules (ionic and non-ionic). Viscoelastic properties of mixes with these two additives and, as a reference mix, with neat unmodified asphalt binder were determined in uniaxial compression with sinusoidal loading using Asphalt Mixture Performance Test. The viscoelastic analysis of pavement structures was performed with use of the VEROAD software and data from laboratory testing. Two different pavement structures were analysed, for light and heavy traffic. The temperature distribution in pavement structure during the hottest summer day in northern Poland in 2012 was taken into account. The model of pavement was loaded with moving wheel at different speeds. The analysis has shown that two tested warm mix additives had different effect on viscoelastic transient response at high temperatures. One of them (Fischer–Tropsch wax) evidently caused an increase in resistance of asphalt mix and pavement structure to loading at high temperature. The second additive (formulation of surfactant-based molecules) slightly reduced resistance of asphalt mix and pavement to loading at high temperatures as compared with the reference mix.     

Effect of pavement design parameters on the behaviour of orthotropic steel bridge deck pavements under traffic loading

This study evaluated the effect of the pavement design parameters on the behaviour of orthotropic steel bridge deck pavements under traffic loading using a three-dimensional finite element model. Four types of paving materials were considered in this analysis: polymer concrete, epoxy asphalt concrete, polymer-modified stone mastic asphalt concrete and mastic asphalt concrete. The maximum transverse tensile strain was developed at the bottom of the pavement under a tyre of dual tyres or on top of the pavement between two tyres. From the sensitivity analysis, better interface bonding between the deck plate and pavement led to a significant enhancement of bottom-up fatigue cracking resistance, especially for 40-mm-thick pavements. As pavement temperature increased from ? 20 to 60°C, critical tensile strain increased significantly, and corresponding locations moved from the bottom to the top of the deck pavement.     

Thin asphalt pavement performance equation through direct computation of falling weight deflectometer-derived strains

A fundamental aspect in a pavement management system is the evaluation of the pavement structural condition and its capability in supporting the designated traffic. The nondestructive technique of the falling weight deflectometer and the layered elastic model are commonly used to identify pavement structural condition. The approach in this article is mechanistic–empirical, with the intent to correlate the strain at the bottom of the asphalt layer with the number of coverages to failure. Strains were computed through mathematical approximation of the deflection basin measured at failure. The proposed asphalt criterion showed the same trend of the subgrade strain criterion developed in conjunction with the reformulation of the California bearing ratio (CBR)-Beta design criteria. The approach provided encouraging results when compared with the other analyses in the development of the CBR-Beta criteria. The database was from the full-scale flexible pavement testing at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, MS, USA.     

齐次化广义屈服函数与角钢输电塔架极限承载力分析

建立了等边角钢截面广义屈服函数的齐次化表达式,由此定义了角钢构件的单元承载比,依据承载比均匀度建立了弹性模量调整的动态阈值,并根据变形能守恒准则建立了弹性模量调整策略,提出了输电塔架极限承载力分析的弹性模量缩减法,可通过系统缩减结构中高承载比单元的弹性模量,模拟输电塔架塑性失效过程,确定结构极限承载力。该法克服了传统弹性模量缩减法及其他弹性模量调整方法因不满足比例加载条件所导致的计算精度和稳定性不良问题,并继承了该类方法原理简单、计算高效的优点。     

Combined methodology for measurement of available bandwidth and link capacity in wired packet networks

Accurate measurement of network parameters such as available bandwidth (ABW), link capacity, delay, packet loss and jitter are used to support and monitor several network functions, for example traffic engineering, quality-of-service (QoS) routing, end-to-end transport performance optimisation and link capacity planning. However, proactive network measurement schemes can impact both the data traffic and the measurement process itself, affecting the accuracy of the estimation if a significant amount of probe traffic is injected into the network. In this work, the authors propose two measurement schemes, one for measuring ABW and the other for measuring link capacity, both of them use a combination of data probe packets and Internet control messaging protocol (ICMP) packets. Our schemes perform ABW and link-capacity measurements in a short time and with a small amount of probe traffic. The authors show a performance study of our measurement schemes and compare their accuracy to those of other existing measurement schemes and also show that the proposed schemes achieve shorter convergence time than other existing schemes and high accuracy.     

基于虚拟化的轻量级背景流量节点生成及部署算法研究

进行了网络攻防分析,针对传统的背景流量模拟技术在生成及部署方面存在背景流量大小}限、背景流量真实性不足、背景流量生成工具部署的数量和位置}限的问题,提出了一种基于虚拟化的轻量级背景流量节点生成及部署算法,该算法是一种基于资源量的目标流量映射、基于最短路由的背景流量应用添加、基于最少通信代价的节点映射的三阶段算法,解决了背景流量节点在网络攻防实验中大规模快速生成及灵活部署的问题。实验结果表明,使用轻量级背景流量节点,生成的背景流量满足网络自相似性,资源消耗小、启动速度快,并且可根据实际网络攻防实验的需求进行动态、灵活、快速的大规模部署。     

泰州大桥钢桥面铺装轮载谱研究

调研了江苏省内三座跨江大桥2007—2010年的交通量和交通荷载状况,利用轮载谱分析货车交通量和交通荷载状况,并推荐了江苏省内货车轮载和典型轮载比例;分析江苏省内三座跨江大桥的货车超载情况并给出了超载比例较大的车型。研究成果为泰州大桥钢桥面铺装设计研究提供了有力支持。     

Exact topology discovery algorithm for the capacity and delay constrained loop network

We have developed an exact model and algorithm for the delay-constrained minimum cost loop problem (DC-MCLP) of finding broadcast loops from a source node. While the traditional minimum cost loop problem (MCLP) deals with only the traffic capacity constraint served by a port of source node, the DC-MCLP deals with the mean network delay and traffic capacity constraints simultaneously. The DC-MCLP consists of finding a set of minimum cost loops to link end-user nodes to a source node satisfying the traffic requirements at end-nodes and the required mean delay of the network. In the DC-MCLP, the objective function is to minimise the total link cost. We have formulated the DC-MCLP and proposed an exact algorithm for its solution. The proposed algorithm is composed of two phases: in the first phase, it generates feasible paths to satisfy the traffic capacity constraint; in the second phase it finds the exact loop topology through matching and allocating optimal link capacity to satisfy the mean delay constraint. In addition, we have derived several properties including the memory and time complexity of the proposed algorithm. Performance evaluation shows that the proposed algorithm has good efficiency for networks with less than thirty nodes and light traffic. Our proposed algorithm can be applied to find the broadcast loops for real-time multimedia traffic     

Assessment of the relationship between the international roughness index and dynamic loading of heavy vehicles

Due to imperfect surface profiles, heavy vehicles moving at high speed on flexible pavement structures oscillate in the vertical axis. This phenomenon induces dynamic loads, which oscillate at lower and higher values than the average load associated with static load considered with most pavement analysis and design applications. Higher loads applied to flexible pavements are likely to significantly reduce pavement service life. A new multibody dynamic truck model was used to study heavy vehicle wheel load for various pavement profiles of varying international roughness index (IRI). The modelled heavy vehicle wheel load response were used to calculate the dynamic load coefficient, and a relationship with IRI was proposed. On the basis of this relationship, the evolving pavement surface profile, and thus evolving IRI, was used to determine the evolution of dynamic loading with pavement life. A comparison of pavement service life for the classical static loading and for dynamic loading was made for three highway flexible pavement structures. When dynamic loads are considered, it was found that the pavement service life reduction may be reduced of about 29 and 20% for bottom-up fatigue cracking and structural rutting failure criteria.