CLUSTERING OF PAVEMENT STRETCHES AND FINDING OUT THE OPTIMUM NUMBER OF CLUSTERS FOR PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE

摘要

When a large number of pavement stretches are to be maintained, the decision making becomescomplicated and prioritization of individual stretches is not much useful in taking maintenancemanagement decisions. In such situations grouping or clustering the pavement stretches havingsimilar distress characteristics would be the practical and effective approach. Since a number ofdistresses are observed on pavements and usually they are being represented in different levelsof severity and extent it becomes quite difficult to cluster them. The problem becomes furtheraggravated as the weights of various distresses also play an important role and it is difficult toexpress them objectively. A methodology has been suggested in this paper on the clustering ofpavement stretches and also to find out the optimum number of clusters. The technique has beenexplained with the help of a case study carried out in a few selected stretches in the state ofRajasthan, India.