No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

a b s t r a c tThe motivation for this study was to investigate the representative volume element (RVE) needed to correlate the nondestructive electromagnetic (EM) measurements with the conventional destructive asphalt pavement quality control measurements. A large pavement rehabilitation contract was used as the test site for the experiment. Pavement cores were drilled from the same locations where the stationary and continuous Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) measurements were obtained. Laboratory measurements included testing the bulk density of cores using two methods, the surface-saturated dry method and determining bulk density by dimensions. Also, Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and the through specimen transmission configuration were employed at microwave frequencies to measure the reference dielectric constant of cores using two different footprint areas and therefore volume elements. The RVE for EM measurements turns out to be frequency dependent; therefore in addition to being dependent on asphalt mixture type and method of obtaining bulk density, it is dependent on the resolution of the EM method used. Then, although the average bulk property results agreed with theoretical formulations of higher core air void content giving a lower dielectric constant, for the individual cores there was no correlation for the VNA measurements because the volume element seizes deviated.Similarly, GPR technique was unable to capture the spatial variation of pavement air voids measured from the 150-mm drill cores. More research is needed to determine the usable RVE for asphalt. © 2015 Periodical Offices of Chang'an University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Owner. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

No abstract

No abstract

This paper presents a beyond state-of-the-art, sweeping microwave asphalt radar mounted on a small radio controlled four-wheel-drive rover. The quasi-monostatic, remote-controllable radar operates at Ku-band and has an output power of +10 dBm. Detection follows the zero intermediate frequency principle. The sweep width allows for a depth resolution better than 10 mm. With its four microprocessors and laptop computer processing, the radar system can provide pavement permittivity data with an uncertainty close to 0.1. This is a considerable advancement when applying electromagnetic measurement techniques for applications where near surface or thin surface layer measurements are needed.

Methods of measuring the complex permittivity of different rock types are demonstrated in the frequency range from 6 GHz to 17 GHz. The used methods are based on the cylindrical resonator and waveguide cutoff frequency principles. This study is part of a larger research project that aims to characterize the electrical properties of asphalt for road surveying purposes. The studied rock types are metavolcanic rock with intermediate composition and pegmatite. The permittivity values gained with the resonator method are 6.2 for the metavolcanic rock and 4.5 for the pegmatite rock type, whereas the imaginary parts are 0.04 and 0.02. The permittivity values gained with the cutoff frequency method are 6.17 and 4.76 respectively. A reference measurement was made only for the metavolcanic rock in a transmission configuration with two antennas and the permittivity result was 6.21. The three different methods provide consistent permittivity values and are suitable for reliable permittivity evaluation.