Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85926
HighwayContractor by Dan Brown, Contributing Editor Smart Rollin' The developing genius of Intelligent Compaction I Intelligent Compaction (IC) for hot mix asphalt is a work in progress. IC rollers are valuable quality control tools that go a long way toward solving the shortcomings of the conventional process. With some IC systems, a display screen in the operator's compartment shows real-time mat temperature, roller coverage of the mat, and some indication of mat stiffness. No current IC system, however, will directly read out mat density. We'll have more on that later. There are shortcomings in the conventional asphalt compaction process. Today, using a standard vibra- tory roller, a fi xed number of passes are applied to the 8 July 2012 Better Roads asphalt. The problem is that a number of critical factors can vary during construction operations. Such factors include support from underlying materials, lift thick- ness, materials type and asphalt mat temperature. The changes in these critical factors are invisible to the roll- er operator during conventional compaction. The result is that too little or too much compaction effort may be applied to the asphalt. The conventional density quality control process also has shortcomings. Typically, a small number of spot tests are run, either with nuclear gauges or core tests. A judgment is made about the density level of the entire