An efficient quality control and acceptance (QA/QC) procedure for constructing hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements requires the complimentary use of traditional destructive test methods and innovative non-destructive testing (NDT) methods. The ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) method is one of the most common NDT methods used for material characterization. However, its isolated use for predicting material strength is limited because of the different variables that affect the strength-velocity relationship. Wave velocity alone does not provide complete information of the materials strength. Thus, additional wave characteristics such as wave attenuation as a function of frequency should be also considered to complement the wave velocity information. In this study, three signal processing techniques: Fourier transform, short-time Fourier transform, and the wavelet transform are used to analyze wave attenuation and frequency content to develop a suitable condition index for HMA mixtures based on wave characteristics. For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD number E211521.
Samenvatting