2012 - USA - Simplified Techniques for Evaluating Network Level FWD Data

The objective of this study was to develop an approach for incorporating techniques used to interpret and evaluate deflection data for network-level pavement management system (PMS) applications. The first part of this research focused on identifying and evaluating existing techniques by seeking out those that were simple, reliable, and easy to incorporate into current PMS practices, as well as those that produced consistent results. The second part of the research detailed the development of guidelines for the application of recommended techniques, along with procedures for determining optimum falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test spacing and data collection frequency. While there are many viable techniques available for evaluating the structural capacity of pavements that use FWD for project-level analysis, many of these techniques are time consuming and require an experienced analyst. As a result, using pavement deflection testing for network-level analysis has been limited to date. The findings presented in this report suggest that it is possible and, in fact, advantageous to define simplified techniques for the evaluation and interpretation of pavement deflections for network-level analysis.