Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85911
Photo courtesy of: Haskell Lemon Construction take the guesswork out of paving jobs, enabling roller operators to view the information on the monitor and determine when the compaction process is sufficient. In the first phase of the TPP project, the team devel- oped a commercial prototype of the IACA that could be mounted on pavement rollers and stand up to long- term use on paving jobs. The project team also devel- oped user manuals and calibration procedures for roller operators. The device was evaluated on five HMA projects in Oklahoma that featured a variety of pavement sections. The evaluation showed that the IACA could estimate the pavement compaction in real time with accuracy suit- able for contractors' quality control operations. Independent Tests payment for the work would typically be reduced or the failed section removed and reconstructed at the contractor's cost. Hence, the need for real-time quality control tools to inform contactors when to stop the compaction operations. The IACA concept uses neural network technology to analyze patterns in the vibration of the rollers to estimate the compaction level being achieved. The device consists of sensors and computational devices that continually analyze the responses of the pavement. The IACA has the ability to The second phase of the project involved independent testing of the device, in which contractors tried IACA units at nine sites in Missouri, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. They tested the IACA during construction of full-depth HMA pavements and other projects typi- cally used by agencies across the country. During these tests, the process of installing and cali- brating the IACA device on the roller usually took less than an hour, about the same amount of time required to construct a test strip on an HMA paving job. More than 180 cores extracted at random from the completed pavements were used to verify the IACA values. When properly calibrated, the test results demonstrated that the IACA-estimated compaction readings were satisfac- tory for the contractor operations. Now that the Technology Partnerships evaluation is complete, project partner Volvo Construction Equipment plans to introduce the IACA as an option on new com- pactors in the future. "The Technology Partnerships Program has been in- strumental in helping validate the IACA technology and in developing a commercially-viable prototype of the IACA," says Commuri. "The assistance provided under this program was vital to bringing together academic re- searchers from Oklahoma University, asphalt contractor Haskell Lemon Construction, equipment manufacturer Volvo Construction Equipment, service provider EST Inc. and technical personnel from FHWA to help accelerate the implementation of innovative technologies." Editor's Note: Story created for Better Roads by FHWA. For more information on Technology Partnerships Program, visit fhwa.dot.gov/hfl/tech.cfm or contact Julie Zirlin at (202) 366-9105 or julie.zirlin@dot.gov For details on the Intelligent Asphalt Compaction Analyzer, contact Sesh Commuri at (405) 325-4302 or scommuri@ou.edu Better Roads February 2012 36 Better Roads March 2012 29b