Data Collection and Management of the Instrumented Smart Road Flexible Pavement Sections

The flexible pavement research facility at the Virginia Smart Road consists of 12 different designs. All sections are closely monitored through a complex array of sensors located beneath the roadway embedded during construction. The environmental sensors include thermocouples for temperature measurements, time domain reflectometry probes to measure moisture content in the base layers, and resistivity probes to measure frost penetration. The dynamic sensors include pressure cells and strain gauges to measure stresses and strains, respectively, induced at different layers from truck loading. Environmental data are collected daily every 15 min for temperature, every hour for moisture, and every 6 h for frost penetration. Truck testing is performed every week with different loading configurations. The loading variables include three load levels, three wheel inflation pressures, and four different speeds. Data are managed by saving environmental data from different instruments separately using date and section number. Truck loading data are saved by test type (based on loading configuration, inflation pressure, and speed), date of test, and section number. A database is being generated for all 12 sections to study the effect of all tested variables on the different flexible pavement designs. The performance of the used instruments and collected data are presented, and the techniques used to manage the overwhelming data are discussed. In addition, based on instrumentation responses, a preliminary discussion of the load distribution in a tested pavement system, the effect of speed on pavement stress and strain responses, and the effectiveness of drainage layer are discussed.