State-of-The-Art Pavement Sensing Technology to Evaluate the Effect of Climate Change on Resilient Performance of Highway Infrastructure Systems: A Pilot Study in the Phoenix Region

It has been an increasing discussion in industry whether climate change will have considerable influence on infrastructure resilience and sustainability. The technique of using vibration sensors to monitor pavement roughness has been expanding in pavement engineering. The primary objective of this study is to implement vehicle based sensing technology to evaluate the effect of climate change on the resilient performance of highway infrastructure systems. The method presented in the paper uses vehicle-based sensors to assess how resilient the highway pavement conditions fluctuate during extreme hot and cold temperatures in Phoenix, AZ USA. This project consisted of developing vehicle-based accelerometers and taking monthly road surveys for a year. Four sensors were mounted to top of each control arm of a vehicle. This project covers collecting data at pavement temperatures from 40–150 °F (4–66 °C). The analysis consists of converting accelerometer data into international roughness index values using Fourier transforms and using statistical analysis to verify a relationship between pavement temperature and accelerometer vibration. The results show that hot asphalt concrete temperatures increase the amount of observable accelerometer vibration from a vehicle. This project demonstrates that vehicle based sensing technology is a cost-effective way to advance the day-to-day operations in highway infrastructure maintenance and management.