Use of a Smart Phone based Application to Measure Roughness of Polyurethane Stabilized Concrete Pavement

Abstract

To evaluate the long-term performance of polyurethane treated concrete pavement sections, indicators such as ride quality, surface elevation, surface deflection, and subbase/subgrade structural integrity are usually assessed by using different tools. This paper presents the evaluation of ride quality of polyurethane stabilized sections of the United States interstate I-24 and I-75 in Chattanooga, Tennessee with lengths ranging from 1050m (0.65 mi.) to 3220m (2.0 mi.) by using two instruments; (1) a standard inertial profiler, and (2) an android smartphone-based application called Roadroid. The analysis of raw data from the profiler were conducted using a profile viewing and analyzing software (ProVAL) to obtain the international roughness index (IRI)-a worldwide ride quality measure. Roadroid IRI values were repeatable with some deviations which are due to variation of lead in lengths, tire wander, and/or minor over-correction of the treated slabs where by adjacent slabs are not at the same elevation. Comparison of the IRI values from ProVAL software and those collected using the smartphone app yields a linear correlation. However, results show that a smartphone app underestimates IRI measurements, and the differences are statistically significant