A Comparative Study of Roughness Indices for Monitoring the Performance of Thin Seal Flexible Pavements subjected to Low Traffic Volumes in Australia

摘要

In this paper, we first classified and briefly reviewed the most popular roadrnroughness indices. Then, wavelet transform was used as a tool to analyse andrncharacterise Australian thin seal flexible pavements with low volume traffic. Thisrnstudy was based upon two experimental low volume highway sections totallingrn57 km in length, located in Victoria, Australia. Correlations have been evaluated forrnwavelet analysis verses the most common road roughness indices used in Australia,rnincluding international roughness index (IRI) and heavy articulated truck indexrn(HATI). Correlations have also been evaluated against other less commonly usedrnroad profile statistics such as root mean square vertical acceleration (RMSVA) andrnmean absolute vertical acceleration (MAVA). Results show that wavelet based roadrnprofile statistics have proven to be a useful tool for multi-resolution measurement ofrnpavement roughness. Wavelet analysis of road profile measurements can explain thernusage of different roughness indices as there is a good correlation between some ofrnthe energy wave-bands and other roughness indices.