Projects

There are several non-destructive and non-intrusive techniques available for moisture measurement, however, each has limitations and there is no standardisation on a single accepted technique within the road construction community. Ground penetrating radar technique has been successfully demonstrated as a means of providing highly accurate estimates of pavement thickness, identifying voids within or under pavement layers, and detecting variations in the air void content of asphalt layers. It has been demonstrated that GPR techniques can also provide reliable estimates of the moisture content of unbound materials. Recently, developments in GPR data acquisition, analysis, computing resources, and interpretation capabilities have emerged that look promising for improving the accuracy of moisture content estimations and which may be able to be used as part of IC activities.

In this project, an extensive investigation of GPR capabilities will be undertaken to develop tools for accurate retrieval of moisture contents of unbound materials. The proposed analysis methods will be investigated using a series of highly detailed numerical modelling exercises, in order to establish concepts based on strong theoretical principles, and as well as laboratory and field trials. The project will identify optimal GPR configurations for use in moisture content estimations during IC.

Within the scope of the project highly advanced tools and algorithms for accurate retrieval of moisture content estimations of unbound materials will also be developed. It is anticipated that the outcomes from this project will be beneficial to the road construction community and will be a valuable contribution towards the development of intelligent compaction.

1. To conduct a literature review on the use of different GPR configurations in subsurface moisture measurements.

2. To identify optimal GPR configurations for moisture estimation within unbound materials and for soil subgrades.

3. To develop analytical methods and automated algorithms for quantitative assessment of moisture within pavements.

4. To enable the practical field implementation of these methods and the integration of developed tools and methods for incorporation within intelligent compaction (IC) methods.