Dynamic Stiffness Assessment of Construction Materials by the Resonant and Non-resonant Methods

Dynamic stiffness of pavement surfaces is a structural property related to surface vibration and traffic noise. It is one of the mechanisms involved in tire/road noise generation. An equipment for measuring dynamic stiffness was designed and built to perform in-situ nondestructive testing on road surfaces. Laboratory studies on samples are presented to compare different measurement procedures. Measurements of the dynamic stiffness were carried out by the Resonant and Non-resonant Method. Moreover, a Dynamic Stiffness Index is proposed in order to compare the stiffness of the studied samples. Construction materials with different characteristics were studied, from resilient materials for acoustic insulation to rigid materials for pavement construction. Results show that the Non-resonant Method is more suitable for dynamic stiffness measurements, since this method could be carried out on real pavements, and both, driving point and transfer functions could be measured simultaneously. Little dynamic stiffness differences were found among road construction materials, compared to those of the resilient materials. However, the presented testing procedures are able to establish differences among these materials.