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Description:
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Pavement smoothness has become a standard measure of pavement quality . Transportation agencies strive to build and maintain smoother pavements . Smooth roads provide comfort while riding , minimize vehicular wear and tear and increase pavement life . A user perceives smoothness of a pavement based on the ride quality , which is severely affected by presence of defects on pavement surface . Defects identified after construction are corrected as per smoothness specifications prescribed by respective transportation agencies . The effectiveness of any method used to determine defect locations depends on the decrease in roughness obtained on correction of defects . Following the above line of thought a method that detects defects by comparing original profile to a smoothened profile will be more effective in identifying defect locations that cause roughness in pavements . This research report proposes a methodology to detect defect locations on pavement surface using profile data collected on pavements . The approach presents a method of obtaining a smoothened profile from the original profile to help identify defect locations based on deviations of the original profile from the smoothened one . Defect areas will have a higher deviation from the smoothened profile as compared to smooth areas . The verification of the defects identified by this approach is carried out by determining the decrease in roughness after removal of the identified defects from profile . A roughness statistic is used to do the same . The approach is illustrated using profile data collected on in -service pavement sections . |