ABSTRACT
Traffic loading, temperature and moisture variations are the main external causes of distresses in pavements. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor pavement loading to facilitate operation, rehabilitation and maintenance of road networks. Current in-situ pavement monitoring methods, which use embedded sensors in the pavement, allow real-time supervision of the road health condition. However, these methods are destructive to the pavement while they can provide information at distinct locations only. Therefore, there is a deficiency in a method that allows spatially continuous monitoring in roads. In this research, a novel graphene-coated geotextile is evaluated for use in applications as a distributed sensor to detect pavement response and damage. In this study, tests were conducted to examine the piezoresistive response of the material by subjecting the geotextile specimens to tensile loading. The results showed a significant electro-mechanical behaviour with potential to be used in a vast range of applications in road infrastructure.
