Highway engineers have always been concerned with providing pavements of acceptable serviceability. The serviceability of a highway segment, which is largely a function of pavement roughness, is a widely used criterion for deciding whenpavements are in need of rehabilitation. For this application, various statistics are currently used as indicators of pavement serviceability, the most common being the present serviceability index. These statistics are largely determined from measurements of pavement roughness. Various devices and procedures have been developed for accomplishing these measurements. Of practical necessity, devices for measuring pavement roughness must be capable of providing repeatable measurements at normal highway speeds. In addition, devices that do not require difficult calibration procedures, that possess the capability for field processing ofthe data collected, and that are relatively inexpensive to own, operate and maintain are most desirable. The siometer, which is currently used by the texas state department of highways and public transportation (sdhpt) for evaluation of pavement riding quality, holds promise as an instrument for the routine collectionof profile data on a network-wide scale. The texas sdhpt has recently begun investigating the profile-measuring capability of the siometer. Amm unique feature ofthis device is the statistical modeling procedure for characterizing the vehicle on which it is minstalled, which lends portability to the siometer. In it, the parameters of the statistical model are determined in a self-calibration procedure that is run before profile data are collected. To evaluate the applicability of the siometer as a device for profile measurements, profile measurements with the siometer were compared with those from a profilometer. This paper appears intransportation research record no. 1260, Measurement of pavement surface condition 1990m.
Samenvatting