Pothole detection in asphalt pavement images

Class F fly ash and bottom ash are the solid residue byproducts produced by coal-burning electric utilities. They are usually disposed of together as a waste in utility disposal sites with a typical disposal rate of 80% fly ash and 20% bottom ash. Direct use of these materials in construction projects consuming large volumes of materials, such as highway embankment construction, not only provides a promising solution to the disposal problem, but also an economic alternative to the use of traditional materials. Representative samples of class F fly and bottom ash were collected from two utility power plants in Indiana and tested for their mechanical properties (compaction, permeability, strength, stiffness, and compressibility). Three mixtures of fly and bottom ash with different mixture ratios (i.e., 50, 75, and 100% fly ash content by weight) were prepared for testing. Test results indicated that ash mixtures compare favorably with conventional granular materials.

Geotechnical Properties of Fly and Bottom Ash Mixtures for Use in Highway Embankments

This paper examines and assesses predictive methods for the saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils. The soil definition is that of engineering. It is not that of soil science and agriculture, which corresponds to “top soil” in engineering. Most predictive methods were calibrated using laboratory permeability tests performed on either disturbed or intact specimens for which the test conditions were either measured or supposed to be known. The quality of predictive equations depends highly on the test quality. Without examining all the quality issues, the paper explains the 14 most important mistakes for tests in rigid-wall or flexible-wall permeameters. Then, it briefly presents 45 predictive methods, and in detail, those with some potential, such as the Kozeny-Carman equation. Afterwards, the data of hundreds of excellent quality tests, with none of the 14 mistakes, are used to assess the predictive methods with a potential. The relative performance of those methods is evaluated and presented in graphs. Three methods are found to work fairly well for non-plastic soils, two for plastic soils without fissures, and one for compacted plastic soils used for liners and covers. The paper discusses the effects of temperature and intrinsic anisotropy within the specimen, but not larger scale anisotropy within aquifers and aquitards.

Predicting the saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils: a review

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/sandf1995/42/6/42_6_65/_pdf

Maximum and minimum void ratio characteristics of sands

A series of undrained monotonic triaxial compression tests were performed on Ottawa sand containing 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% of non-plastic silt. The paper focuses on distinctive states of the monotonic undrained response of sands, namely the critical state, the phase transformation state, the quasi-steady state, and the state of undrained instability (onset of flow liquefaction). Specimens were prepared using slurry deposition and moist tamping to investigate the effect of the initial sand fabric on these states. It was observed that an increase in the non-plastic fines content leads to a downward shift of the critical-state line in the void ratio–mean effective stress space and to an increase of the critical-state friction angle. The present data suggest that the initial fabric of the sand appears to have a significant effect on the undrained behaviour in the early stages of shearing, with its influence vanishing at large strains. Moist-tamped specimens demonstrate considerably larger undrained instability s...

Undrained monotonic response of clean and silty sands

The properties of clean sands pertaining to shear strength and stiffness have been studied extensively. However, natural sands generally contain significant amounts of silt and/or clay. The mechanical response of such soils is different from that of clean sands. This paper addresses the effects of nonplastic fines on the small-strain stiffness and shear strength of sands. A series of laboratory tests was performed on samples of Ottawa sand with fines content in the range of 5–20% by weight. The samples were prepared at different relative densities and were subjected to various levels of mean effective consolidation stress. Most of the triaxial tests were conducted to axial strains in excess of 30%. The stress-strain responses were recorded, and the shear strength and dilatancy parameters were obtained for each fines percentage. Bender element tests performed in triaxial test samples allowed assessment of the effect of fines content on small-strain mechanical stiffness.

Shear strength and stiffness of silty sand

Liquefaction of granular soil deposits is one of the major causes of loss resulting from earthquakes. The accuracy in the assessment of the likelihood of liquefaction at a site affects the safety and economy of the design. In this paper, curves of cyclic resistance ratio (CRR) versus cone penetration test (CPT) stress-normalized cone resistance qc1 are developed from a combination of analysis and laboratory testing. The approach consists of two steps: (1) determination of the CRR as a function of relative density from cyclic triaxial tests performed on samples isotropically consolidated to 100 kPa; and (2) estimation of the stress-normalized cone resistance qc1 for the relative densities at which the soil liquefaction tests were performed. A well-tested penetration resistance analysis based on cavity expansion analysis was used to calculate qc1 for the various soil densities. A set of 64 cyclic triaxial tests were performed on specimens of Ottawa sand with nonplastic silt content in the range of 0–15% by ...

Liquefaction Resistance of Clean and Nonplastic Silty Sands Based on Cone Penetration Resistance

: Government agencies and consulting companies in charge of pavement management face the challenge of maintaining pavements in serviceable conditions throughout their life from the functional and structural standpoints. For this, the assessment and prediction of the pavement conditions are crucial. This study proposes a neuro-fuzzy model to predict the performance of flexible pavements using the parameters routinely collected by agencies to characterize the condition of an existing pavement. These parameters are generally obtained by performing falling weight deflectometer tests and monitoring the development of distresses on the pavement surface. The proposed hybrid model for predicting pavement performance was characterized by multilayer, feedforward neural networks that led the reasoning process of the IF-THEN fuzzy rules. The results of the neuro-fuzzy model were superior to those of the linear regression model in terms of accuracy in the approximation. The proposed neuro-fuzzy model showed good generalization capability, and the evaluation of the model performance produced satisfactory results, demonstrating the efficiency and potential of these new mathematical modeling techniques.

Prediction of Pavement Performance through Neuro‐Fuzzy Reasoning

Numerical limit analysis is used to assess the stability of slopes subjected to seismic loading. The soil is assumed to follow the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion. The lower and upper bound theorems are formulated as linear problems to be solved using linear programming techniques. Based on finite element discretisation of the slope, the velocity field is optimised to find the lowest upper bound, and the stress field is optimised to obtain the highest lower bound. Limit equilibrium computations and log-spiral upper bound solutions were also performed for comparison purposes. Additionally, finite element analyses were done for selected cases. Results from the limit equilibrium and finite element methods are in excellent agreement with the rigorous lower and upper bounds for all cases studied. The slip surfaces obtained from both the limit equilibrium and log-spiral upper bound methods lie within the plastic zones obtained for the slopes from both finite element and numerical limit analysis. Plots are presen...

Stability of seismically loaded slopes using limit analysis

The hydraulic conductivity, the coefficient of consolidation, and the coefficient of volume compressibility play major roles on the pore pressure generation during undrained and partially drained loading of granular soils with fines. This paper aims to determine how much these soil parameters are affected by the percentage of fines and void ratio of the soil. The results of a large number of flexible wall permeameter tests performed on 60 specimens of two poorly graded sands with 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% nonplastic silt are presented and discussed. Hydraulic conductivity measurements were done at effective confining stresses of 50–300 kPa. The evaluation of the data shows that the hydraulic conductivity and the coefficient of consolidation of sands with 25% silt content are approximately two orders of magnitude smaller than those of clean sands. The coefficient of volume compressibility of the sand-silt mixtures is affected in a lesser degree by void ratio, silt content, and confining stress. The influence of the degree of saturation on the laboratory-measured k values is also discussed.

Paola Bandini

Papers

Shear strength and stiffness of silty sand

Liquefaction Resistance of Clean and Nonplastic Silty Sands Based on Cone Penetration Resistance

Prediction of Pavement Performance through Neuro‐Fuzzy Reasoning

Stability of seismically loaded slopes using limit analysis

Effects of silt content and void ratio on the saturated hydraulic conductivity and compressibility of sand-silt mixtures.