Study of Pavement Macro- and Micro-Texture Evolution Law during Compaction Using 3D Laser Scanning Technology

Abstract

The pavement macro-texture and micro-texture are crucial factors for evaluating pavement performance as they have a significant correlation with friction, water film formation, and driving safety. During pavement construction, the macro-texture and micro-texture are significantly related to compaction operations. However, the current approach for evaluating pavement texture still relies on post-construction acceptance, with few considerations on the evolution patterns of pavement texture during the compaction process. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the texture evolution law during compaction by implementing a laboratory compaction method. High-precision texture data from various asphalt mixtures were collected using 3D laser scanning during laboratory compaction. Macro-texture and micro-texture parameters were used to evaluate surface texture. Nineteen traditional geometric parameters were calculated at the macro-level to analyze macro-texture characteristics, while a 2D wavelet transform approach was applied at the micro-level to extract micro-texture, and the energy of each level and relative energy were calculated as indicators. This study analyzed the evolution law of parameters and found that certain parameters tend to converge. Moreover, geometric parameters and energy at lower levels of the samples could be utilized as supervising factors to regulate the compaction process.