Pavement health monitoring using IoT enabled in-road sensing

Abstract

Continuous pavement health monitoring detects the early degradation of the pavement structure and extends the lifetime thereof by informing routine maintenance actions. Traditional pavement condition monitoring techniques are limited in this regard as their high cost restricts the frequent use thereof. Thus, a need exists for low-cost, high coverage, and continuous monitoring of the pavement structure. This paper presents a low-cost wireless self-powered in-road sensing device that frequently assesses the pavement's condition. Unlike traditional systems, the proposed solution combines a suite of different sensors to provide valuable insight into the factors that affect pavement health. Measurands such as the pavement deflection at the time of vehicular loading, temperature, humidity, and moisture content are captured at the upper layers of the pavement structure. In addition, the ability of accelerometers to accurately convert the acceleration of the pavement to elastic deflection and/or displacement upon loading is assessed.