A PROGRESS REPORT ON THE EVALUATION AND APPLICATION STUDY OF THE GENERAL MOTORS RAPID TRAVEL ROAD PROFILOMETER

THIS PAPER IS PRIMARILY CONCERNED WITH EVALUATION OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, AND APPLICABILITY OF THE GENERAL MOTORS RAPID TRAVEL PROFILOMETER (RTP) FOR HIGHWAY PURPOSES. DETAILS OF THE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM ITSELF ARE VERY LIMITED, HAVING BEEN EXCELLENTLY COVERED IN AN EARLIER REPORT BY GENERAL MOTORS. THE REPORT COMPRISES FOUR SECTIONS: THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ACCURACY, PROFILE ANALYSIS METHODS, RELIABILITY AND FIELD EXPERIENCE, AND A BRIEF DISCUSSION OF USE OF THE RTP ON MICHIGAN PROJECTS. COMPARISON STUDY OF RTP PROFILES AND PRECISE LEVEL SURVEY PROFILES DEMONSTRATES RTP ACCURACY. THOUSANDS OF MILES OF USE HAVE PROVED THE SYSTEM TO BE RUGGED AND CONSISTENTLY RELIABLE. FURTHERMORE, FIELD EXPERIENCE HAS SHOWN THE SYSTEM TO BE EASILY USABLE FOR DETERMINING THE SURFACE PROFILE OF ANY TYPE OF HIGHWAY SURFACE. IN ADDITION, THE MAGNETIC TAPE MEDIUM AND FM FORMAT OF RECORDED FIELD DATA PERMITS AND FACILITATES ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING MACHINE COMPUTATION. THE RESULTS AND RATIONALE OF CORRELATION STUDIES BETWEEN THE RTP INDEX AND SLOPE VARIANCE (CHLOE), AND THE RTP AND A BPR- TYPE ROUGHOMETER, ARE PRESENTED AND ARE CONSIDERABLY BETTER THAN WOULD BE THEORETICALLY SURMISED. ALSO, THE FREQUENCY RESPONSE OF THE RTP IS COMPARED TO VARIOUS LENGTH ROLLING STRAIGHTEDGES AND TO A BPR-TYPE ROUGHOMETER AND IS FOUND GREATLY SUPERIOR IN THIS RESPECT TO EITHER OF THESE DEVICES. A CONSIDERABLE PORTION OF THE REPORT IS DEVOTED TO THE VARIOUS METHODS OF PROFILE ANALYSIS PERMITTED BY THE DEVICE'S OUTPUT FORMAT. IT LENDS ITSELF TO ANALOG, DIGITAL, OR HYBRID PROCESSING. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY ANALYSIS IS INVESTIGATED AND SUGGESTED AS A SUPERIOR METHOD OF PROFILE ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION. /AUTHOR/

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrr/1968/214/214-008.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Paper sponsored by Committee on Surface-Vehicle Interaction, and presented at the 46th and 47th Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • Darlington, J R
  • Milliman, P
• Publication Date: 1968

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 50-67
• Monograph Title: Surface properties of pavements and vehicle interaction
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Record
  • Issue Number: 214
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Information processing; Magnetic tapes; Performance; Profilometers; Reliability; Road meters
• Uncontrolled Terms: Field performance; Profiles
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00206749
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jul 22 1994 12:00AM