Improved measurement of road pavement strength by Dynamic Cone Penetrometer: inception report.
Abstract
Low volume sealed roads in developing countries often become badly damaged over short lengths because of poor drainage, material problems and, most commonly, a combination of both. The most effective way of resolving such problems is for local improvements to be made by District organisations. The design of such improvements can be based on simple, low cost evaluation techniques, one of which is based on the Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP). To encourage its use, TRL produced Overseas Road Note 8 (1990) with a software package to analyse the data in the DOS operating system.
With its simple operating technique and the extent and quality of information that can be derived from a single test, the DCP is by far the most suitable instrument for use in the structural evaluation of rural roads and it also allows the engineer to make sensible decisions on the nature and location of any spot improvements to the road structure or drainage.
In the last ten years or so there has been considerable development in Information Technology and the original software has become unusable - because of 'technology drift' it cannot now be run with modern operating systems. Furthermore the use of the DCP has become very widespread and improved methods of data analysis have evolved. Hence, there is an urgent need to upgrade the present User Guide and analysis package.
DFID has approved a KaR proposal to upgrade the software. This inception report summarises the initial findings from a user survey, reports the progress achieved so far and outlines the proposed structure of the new program.
Citation
Samuel, P.; Jones, C. Improved measurement of road pavement strength by Dynamic Cone Penetrometer: inception report. (2003)
Links
Improved measurement of road pavement strength by Dynamic Cone Penetrometer: inception report.