Determination of Road Deflections from Traffic Induced Accelerations

ABSTRACT Vertical elastic pavement deflections from moving vehicles provide valuable information for assessing the structural behaviour of a road under real loads. Various types of sensors can be installed in a road for deflection monitoring. This paper explores the use of accelerometers. It discusses the problems involving the calculation of deflections from measured acceleration by double integration due to the amplification of measurement errors in the acceleration signal. It proposes a simple algorithm to correct integration errors and obtain deflections from acceleration measurements. It also presents a laboratory testing method to evaluate the performance of two accelerometers for their suitability in road applications. In addition, using a selected accelerometer, pavement deflections at a wheel tracking test site are calculated and discussed.