ABSTRACT
An experimental study was conducted to determine the effects of geosynthetic reinforcement on performance of piezoelectric self-powered sensors for pavement health monitoring. A new miniaturized disc shape packaging system was designed for the protection of the sensing system. The size of the entire packaging system is of the same order of a coarse aggregate particle. However, there were two concerns about the application of such embedded sensing packaging system: (1) the area around the sensor might be prone to crack initiation due to the disruption of the continuity of the pavement, and (2) the protective system may be damaged due to excessive tensile strain at the bottom of the asphalt layer. To deal with these issues, the area around the packaging was reinforced using Alkali Resistant (AR) glass-fiber mesh. A series of tests were performed under a three-point bending configuration on asphalt slabs to analyze the response of embedded piezoelectric strain transducers with and without reinforcement due to the progression of bottom-up cracks. The cyclic tests were done at 2 and 5 Hz loading frequency for different loading amplitudes. Based on the results, glass-fiber reinforcement reduces the stress concentration around the packaging system. This is while it does not affect the damage detection performance of the sensors.
