ABSTRACT
The first Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) was worldwide released in the late 70’s and has given the opportunity to calculate the in-situ modulus and critical stress/strains considered the most important input for the ‘mechanistic’ part of the Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) pavement design method. In 2015, the Fast Falling Weight Deflectometer (FastFWD) was introduced speeding up testing procedures and overall productivity reaching a loading rate from 5 to 7.5 times faster than any existing FWD device. This research paper has studied the possibility of using the FastFWD for in-situ Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) in order to predict pavement deterioration. The method has potential to shorten the gap between the Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) and small-scale laboratory test methods. Based on the findings, an Incremental-Recursive fatigue model has been used to accurately predict the reduction in asphalt modulus as a function of any combination of loads and temperatures for a particular material.
