The pavement dynamic cone penetrometer (PDCP) considered in this study is similar to the one used in South Africa. In this study, the PDCP was used in conjunction with an accelerometer mounted at the extreme top of the device. Acceleration, velocity, and displacement histories were obtained. The force history was obtained by matching the measured acceleration peaks with that calculated using a numerical model of pdcp. The fast fourier transform (FFT) technique was used to transform the information recorded in real time to the frequency domain. Spectral analyses were performed, and soil-damping characteristics were obtained for two pavement sections. The study shows that it is possible to determine the hysteretic and the viscous damping ratios in situ using the method of dynamic analysis described here.
Samenvatting