ABSTRACT
Identifying the causes of asphalt pavement distress is crucial for selecting adequate management strategies and rehabilitation treatments. However, it is difficult for engineers to determine the causes associated to the specific distress based on simple field observation. This paper presents a multi-scale approach for diagnosing the causes of asphalt pavement cracking. This deleterious phenomenon is addressed based on a number of multi-scale characteristics, including crack shape, extent, location, patterns, and width. Then, several causal factors linked to the cracks formation are categorized. Finally, a diagnosis model is developed by establishing the relationship between the multi-scale crack characteristics and the causal factors. Four real examples illustrate the use of the proposed pavement crack diagnosis model. The proposed model has the potential of being expanded into a deterministic-stochastic model when a wider data base (knowledge base data set) is established.
