Abstract
Cracking is one of the predominant types of pavement surface distresses. The study of crack deterioration is important for establishing accurate pavement deterioration models and determining the timing of an adequate treatment method. It is also crucial to support the validation of the Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide. Although many efforts have been made in the laboratory or controlled environments to simulate the crack deterioration behavior, it is still difficult to fully model actual pavement crack deterioration behavior because of the complicated roadway conditions in the real-world environment. With the advance of sensing technology, it has become possible to collect detailed crack data in the field. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of monitoring detailed crack deterioration behaviors in the field with the use of three-dimensional sensing technology, crack detection, and multiscale crack property extraction. This effort directly supports the study of multiscale crack deterioration behaviors. In this research, a pilot study was conducted on Georgia State Route 26, and the crack deterioration behaviors were monitored over 2 years. Analysis was conducted at the 1-mi segment level, the 100-ft section level, and the detailed crack level. The study shows promising results for observing and quantifying crack deterioration behaviors. The issues for analyzing long-term monitoring data are also discussed in this paper. Ultimately, the proposed method should be able to be used to support the development of a long-term performance forecasting model.
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