in the previous paper in this record, the fundamental engineering data required to design automated pavement surface distress evaluation systems were discussed; in particular, luminance values along the crack sidewalls and bottom were used to calculate the visual contrast between the crack and surrounding pavement.Image contrast is an important parameter in machine vision design. Computer modeling of light reflection in portland cement concrete (pcc) pavement cracks can be used to simulate the luminance values in pavement images. Such a model, presented for the luminance of long rectangular slots in homogeneous pavements, is experimentally validated, extended, and applied to pavement surface distress. The model and resulting data are useful for the design of image acquisition and image processing systems and in the simulation of worst case images for testing pavement evaluation systems. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1260, Measurement of pavement surface condition 1990.
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