APPLICATION OF SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF SURFACE WAVES IN PAVEMENT STRENGTH EVALUATION

This paper discusses various aspects of the Spectral Analysis of Wave Surfaces (SASW) method and its application to evaluating pavement strength. SASW tests use transient vertical impact loads to generate surface waves of various frequencies, and two vertical receivers on the surface, to monitor the waves' propagation. The tests rapidly determine the wave velocities and phase information between receivers, in relation to the frequencies. Field data from an SASW test are acquired in three stages: (1) applying a field test procedure; (2) determining the Rayleigh (R-wave) dispersion curve; and (3) inverting the R-wave dispersion curve, to calculate the propagation velocities at different depths. An interpolation or search algorithm, rather than an iteration method, was developed to improve the results for conventional pavement sections. The characteristics of frequency domain methods are discussed. A comparison is made between the results of the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) and hammer drop methods for generating test impacts. The SASW technique has been found to be a powerful and potentially economical method of evaluating the elastic properties of pavement systems and natural soil deposits.

  • Availability:
  • Corporate Authors:

    Indian Roads Congress

    Jamnagar House, Shahjahan Road
    New Delhi,   India  110 011
  • Authors:
    • MURTHY, R S
    • SUKUMARAN, K
  • Publication Date: 1996-3

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Features: References;
  • Pagination: p. 5-15
  • Serial:
    • Indian Highways
    • Volume: 24
    • Issue Number: 3
    • Publisher: Indian Roads Congress
    • ISSN: 0376-7256

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00729724
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
  • Files: ITRD, ATRI
  • Created Date: Dec 26 1996 12:00AM