A COMPARISON OF LIGHT VERSUS HEAVY DYNAMIC LOAD TESTING OF RIGID PAVEMENTS

Abstract

A battle has raged for several years over the type and level of dynamic loads that should be applied for evaluating existing rigid pavements. Current conventional wisdom suggests that "bigger is better". This may or may not be true depending on conditions but it may be similar to ideas about human anatomy. This study compares significant amounts of data that define the realistic load limits required for testing. The dynamics of the problem are very important in determining the final answer as are the type of load the relative cost, and the variability of the parameters. This study reports and compares test data on field, and shows that several types of loading equipment are useful and effective. The choice depends on materials variability, equipment availability, and other factors. Equipment such as the Dynaflect is shown to be as useful in pavement evaluation as so-called heavy equipment under most conditions and to be better under conditions of large variability, due to the ability to repeat large numbers of tests at low cost.