The iowa state university civil and construction engineering department has initiated a demonstration of pavement instrumentation with the federal highway administration (fhwa) and the iowa departmentof transportation. The paper outlines the procedures used to establish the project location, select the software and hardware, and complete the installation of more than 120 sensors in a 40-ft segment ofi-80. Moisture and density of the base are measured by nuclear means. Temperature of slab and base, strains in the pavement and on the dowels, and deflections of the pavement are monitored. The entire system is triggered by the use of a piezoelectric weigh-in-motion system. Information from the site will provide the research team with a way to monitor the performance of pavement in the field under actualtraffic and environmental conditions. The site is unique in that all the electronic sensors will be controlled from a site some 150 miles away and will utilize microcomputers to perform the controls. Theproblems and results associated with that installation are described. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1215, Pavement management and rehabilitation.
Abstract