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The CAPTIF unbound pavement strain measurement system

Chapter · September 2012

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 Advances in Pavement Design through Full-scale Accelerated
Pavement Testing – Jones, Harvey, Mateos & Al-Qadi (Eds.)
© 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-62138-0

The CAPTIF unbound pavement strain measurement system

F.R. Greenslade & D.J. Alabaster

NZ Transport Agency, Christchurch, New Zealand

B.D. Steven
Beca Infrastructure Ltd., Christchurch, New Zealand

B.D. Pidwerbesky
Fulton Hogan Ltd., Christchurch, New Zealand

ABSTRACT: The Canterbury Accelerated Pavement Testing Indoor Facility (CAPTIF) has been measuring
elastic strain in unbound pavements for more than 40 years. This paper documents a brief history of the approaches
used at CAPTIF, the validation of the systems, the development of the latest system which has been built on
a scientific/industrial measurement platform from National Instruments (NI), and potential improvements into
the future.

1 INTRODUCTION flexible in that it could be used at different spacing

One of the fundamental measurements that have been
recorded at the Canterbury Accelerated Pavement
Testing Indoor Facility (CAPTIF) is elastic strains in
the subgrade and pavement. As New Zealand roads
consist primarily of thin surfaced, unbound granular
pavements, the sensors used for this measurement have
been inductive coil sensors because the free-floating
coils cause the least disturbance to the materials
compared with other strain-measuring devices. The
principal of operation involves the mutual inductance
coupling of two co-axial sensors embedded within
the subgrade or pavement layers. One of the coils
is excited with an alternating current signal (trans-
mitter coil). The other coil (receiver coil) returns an
induced alternating current signal due to the magnetic
coupling between them. The coupling is extremely
sensitive to axial spacing and hence can be directly
related to strain. CAPTIF has used and modified a vari-
ety of coil induction strain measurement systems, the
first reported measurements were published in 1972
(Patterson, 1972). The following is a summary of those
systems.
1.1 Bison system
CAPTIF started using the original ‘Bison’ equipment
in the early 1970’s. It had been developed by E.T Selig
at State University of New York at Buffalo (Selig,
1969). The Bison apparatus could measure one coil
pair at a time. A dial on the front of the device was
used to ‘null’ the signal before a voltage reading was
measured from an output using a voltmeter. It was
ranges and could be used with different coil diame-
ters. By the early 1990’s, the Bison system at CAPTIF
evolved to include manual switching (multiplexing) of
coil pairs so that multi-coil pair installations could be
measured. A Hewlett-Packard datalogger was added
to record measurement values at high speed so that
resilient strains could be recorded.
1.2 Saskatchewan system
In the mid 1990’s a new coil measurement sys-
tem was purchased from DDR Technologies Ltd,
Saskatchewan, Canada. This system had been devel-
oped for the APT facility operated by Saskatchewan
Highways and Transportation Department. It used
coils produced by the Bison Company. The
Saskatchewan system had some advantages. It was
capable of measuring a vast number of channels by
daisy chaining together more electronic modules. The
system was controlled by a personal computer (PC)
with software written in the “C” language, which
could be altered to accommodate CAPTIF’s special-
ized requirements. The oscillation frequency of the
transmitter circuits was set to 150 kHz which caused
a fast generation and decay of the magnetic coupling.
This allowed a much faster switching time between
coil pairs and therefore many coil pairs could be mea-
sured in one pass of the vehicle. A disadvantage of the
system was that in order to enable the system to oper-
ate at higher frequencies each coil pair had to be tuned
to that frequency. Cable lengths (6 m) were critical to
achieve the ‘tuned circuit’ due to their capacitance.
Additional tuning circuitry was necessary to achieve

113
the ‘tuned’ state. CAPTIF encountered a major prob-
lem with this system. The coils would tend to drift off
tune during a project and therefore did not match their
calibration equations. The Saskatchewan system was
abandoned when the Bison Company ceased operation
and production of Bison coils stopped.
1.3 Emu system
Around the year 2000, CAPTIF purchased the εmu
system developed by Nottingham University. The
εmu had manual controls and so in order to auto-
mate the system it was modified and a multiplexor
system developed to allow multiple channels to be
read. The multiplexor system and data acquisition was
achieved with the use of National Instruments (NI)
data acquisition cards installed inside a PC. Software
was developed using NI Labview. The NI hardware
and software proved to be both reliable and flexible.
Nottingham University provided instructions to
build the εmu system and its coils so CAPTIF was no
longer restricted to the use of Bison coils. The εmu
system employed a more traditional approach than
the Saskatchewan system and so avoided the tuning
problems. The CAPTIF implementation of this sys-
tem experienced electronic drift typically found with
custom built electronic designs of its era. The drift
did not effect the excellent capabilities of measuring
resilient strains; however, it limited it’s capability to
measure permanent (plastic) strains.
1.4 CAPTIF system
Since the NI hardware had proved reliable with the
εmu system, CAPTIF decided to investigate the use
of NI hardware for the coil excitation and signal con-
ditioning. The induction process occurring in the coil
pair functions in a very similar way to a common
displacement sensor known as the Linear Variable Dis-
placement Transducer (LVDT). NI produces a module
(SCXI-1540) specifically for controlling and measur-
ing LVDT’s and in 2006 this was trialed to assess
whether it would be suitable for strain coils. Initially
a selection of coils with different wire thickness and
numbers of coil turns was tested to determine which
coil design produced the best output. Once the coil
selection was determined, a high grade pre-amplifier
was developed to boost the signal from the receiver
coil to a range that was suitable for use with the SCXI-
1540. These trials were very successful. The system
proved very accurate, repeatable, and stable. The sta-
bility was such that CAPTIF felt confident that the
system could be used to measure permanent strains in
pavement tests, which was previously not possible in
previous systems because of the electronic drift.
Based on this successful trial, CAPTIF decided to
develop a complete system based on NI hardware.
This system comprised of an industrial NI PXI-SCXI-
chassis fitted with an embedded controller running a
Microsoft Windows operating system and NI Labview
software.
114
Figure 1. CAPTIF strain coil.
The chassis was also fitted with a multiplexor
switch, a data acquisition card and the SCXI-1540
LVDT module. A termination panel was designed for
connecting the coils and included the pre-amp cir-
cuitry. The industrial chassis and termination panels
are installed in a standard industrial cabinet.
2 HARDWARE
The CAPTIF system has been developed to measure
strains or displacements that occur between pairs of
inductive coils that are buried within pavement layers.
It can be used to measure the elastic strain generated
by moving vehicles and can detect permanent strains
caused by repeated vehicle loading.
2.1 Inductive coils
The inductive coils consist of a circular plastic disk
with a groove cut into the perimeter in which cop-
per wire is wound around to form an inductive circuit
(Figure 1).
The inductive coils are used as a pair. One of the
pair becomes the transmitter in which an alternating
current is driven from an electronic source. This has
the effect of generating an alternating magnetic flux
field around the coil. The receiver coil is placed within
this magnetic flux field and this causes an alternat-
ing current to be generated within the receiver coil.
This phenomenon is known as mutual induction. The
magnitude of the generated signal is proportional to
the distance between the coils. This relationship is
not linear (because the magnetic flux density gradi-
ent is not linear). The receiver coil output is measured
by electronic detection circuits. Thus a pair of coils
will provide a non-contact strain measuring device.
The magnetic flux occurring in the coil pair can be
influenced by metallic objects and external magnetic
radiation. It is advisable to keep moving metallic
objects at least 300 mm away. Where coils need to
be placed higher in the pavement large metallic mov-
ing objects will generate an additional response in the
receiving coils which can be corrected for in later data
processing.
2.2 LVDT technology
LVDT’s are commonly used in scientific and indus-
trial applications. The electronic technology to mea-
sure LVDT’s has become very accurate and reliable.
LVDT’s use the same principle of operation as strain
coils, therefore it is possible to use the electronic cir-
cuits that have been devised to work with LVDT’s with
the strain coils. The NI SCXI-1540 is an electronic
module that has been specifically designed to measure
LVDT’s. It includes electronic circuits that generate
alternating current sources for excitation of sensors
as well as signal conditioning circuits for detecting
alternating current signals. The SCXI-1540 is the heart
of CAPTIF system.
2.3 Hardware main components
The CAPTIF system consists of the following
components:
1. An NI PXI-1050 chassis. This is a combination
chassis that is divided into two parts. The first
part accepts PXI format cards. The second part
accepts SCXI-format signal conditioning cards.
2. An NI PXI-8184 embedded controller, which acts
as a stand alone computer. It runs a real time oper-
ating system and controls the PXI and SCXI-buses.
It runs the data acquisition and control software and
communicates via Ethernet connection to external
computers. It has onboard memory and a hard drive.
3. An NI SCXI-1540 LVDT module (described
above).
4. An NI PXI-6221 data acquisition card (DAQ),
which converts the analog signal output from the
SCXI-1540 to digital data.
5. An NI PXI- 2576 multiplexor to enable switching
of the coil pairs to the SCXI-1540.
6. A CAPTIF designed termination panel, which
provides coil cable connectors and connects via
ribbon cable to the PXI-2576. It also incorporates
the CAPTIF designed pre-amplifier circuit that
boosts the receiver coil signal before entering the
SCXI-1540.
2.4 Hardware operation
The transmitter coil of each inductive coil pair is
routed from the termination panel via the PXI-2576
to the excitation terminals of channel zero on the
SCXI-1540. The excitation signal is a 10 kHz 3.5 Vpp
alternating current signal. The transmitter coil induces
an alternating current signal in the receiver coil, which
outputs a very small voltage in the region of 30 mVrms
at 75 mm coil spacing. This signal is routed from
the termination panel via the PXI-2576 back to the
CAPTIF pre-amplifier on the termination panel which
feeds directly into the channel zero input terminals of
the SCXI-1540. The pre-amplifier has a fixed gain of
115
100. The SCXI-1540 has gain set to one. The output
from channel zero of the SCXI-1540 is read in the
PXI-6221 DAQ. The voltage range is set to ±5 V for
plastic strain measurements.
To measure resilient strains, the static-loaded coil
voltage is first measured. An equivalent voltage is then
applied from an analog output to the non-referenced
single ended (NRSE) input on the PXI-6221. Then
the dynamically loaded coil voltage is measured with
respect to this NRSE input. Therefore the difference
between the initial static-loaded coil voltage and the
changing coil voltage generated by the transient load
can be measured. Because the voltage difference is so
small the range is set to ±200 mV, which allows a much
higher resolution of the very small resilient strains.
The PXI-2576 is configured to be a dual 32 × 1
multiplexor. This allows up to 32 transmitter coils and
32 receiver coils to be routed to the SCXI-1540. A
coil pair sequence is pre-programmed into the soft-
ware. The multiplexor is set to the first coil pair and a
static-loaded coil voltage is measured (this is used as
the reference for the resilient strain measurement). As
a vehicle approaches it triggers a photo-electric sen-
sor (SUNX VF2-RM5-3). The photo-trigger is input
into the trigger terminal on the PXI-6221, which ini-
tiates a dynamic measurement to be taken. The coil
pair is sampled continuously at an appropriate speed
to enable a trace of the resilient strain to be recorded.
Once the measurement is taken the multiplexor is
set to the next coil pair. The process of taking an static-
loaded coil measurement and a triggered resilient
strain measurement repeats until all the coil pairs have
been measured. For a 32 pair coil array this will take
32 passes of the vehicle.
2.5 Resolution specifications
The NI PXI-6221 employs a 16 bit analog to dig-
ital converter (DAC). The CAPTIF system utilizes
the DAC in two modes. When taking a plastic strain
measurement the DAC is set to an input range of
±5 V. Therefore the calculated resolution will be
10 V/2ˆ16 = 152.6 uV. At a coil spacing of 75 mm
a 152 uV change in output is approximately equal
to 0.009 mm. This equates to 118 microstrain. When
taking a resilient strain measurement, the range of
the DAQ Card is set ±0.2 V. The calculated reso-
lution will be 0.4 V/2ˆ16 = 6.1 uV. This equates to
4.72 microstrain. However, due to electrical noise
these calculated resolutions cannot in practice be
achieved.
2.6 Practical resolution
All analog sensors and electronic devices have an
inherent electrical noise, which is superimposed on
the signal of interest. Electronic amplifier circuits
will also amplify the noise as well as the signal. The
CAPTIF system in the resilient strain measurement
mode records about 5 mV of noise at a 75 mm coil
spacing. In order to determine strain resolutions less
than 500 microstrain it is necessary to process the data
Figure 2. CAPTIF test facility.

to remove the noise. This can be done in post pro-

cessing of the captured raw data or can be done by
using the inbuilt software filter. Using the inbuilt fil-
ter, resilient strains of less than 50 microstrain can
typically be resolved. It may be possible with the use
of more sophisticated hardware and software filtering
to remove more electrical noise and get resolutions
closer to the calculated hardware resolutions. Figure 3. Plan view of typical CAPTIF pavement layout.
2.7 Improvements
vertical stack has seven pairs and will extend through
CAPTIF is about to trial a higher specification data
the basecourse and the subgrade material. Two fur-
acquisition card, the NI-PXI-6289. The analog to dig-
ther stacks are arranged around the main stack so
ital converter is an 18 bit device. The calculated
that longitudinal and transverse strains can be mea-
resolution would then be 29.5 microstrain for plastic
sured. These ‘side’ stacks also measure the vertical
strain measurements. The smallest range on this device
strains and act as a check against the main stack. Each
is ±0.1 V, which equates to a calculated resolution
section of the pavement will contain at least one of
of 0.59 microstrain for resilient strain measurements.
these arrays and measurements will be triggered by a
Practical limits due to electrical noise need to be
specific photo-detector for that array.
considered; however, some improvement is expected.
The PXI-6289 has onboard hardware filters to remove
3.2 Software programs
noise, which will be experimented with.
CAPTIF has developed three software programs for
the system. All programs access a pre-configured lay-
3 SOFTWARE
out file. This file is resident on the hard disc drive and
has all the information pertaining to the coil pair array.
The CAPTIF system uses custom software to provide
It includes a unique pair number, the transmitter and
control, data acquisition, data storage, and commu-
receiver coil numbers, and what multiplexor circuits
nication. The software has been written using NI
they are connected to.
Labview. The embedded controller runs a Windows 7
operating system. Drivers are loaded on to the con- 3.2.1 Calibration software
troller and allow operation of the PXI hardware by This software is used for calibrating the coils and is
the Labview software. The software was developed on used with the coil calibration jig (Figure 5). A pair is
the PXI controller and runs remotely from a PC over selected from the layout file and then measurements
Ethernet. are recorded at pre-determined coil spacings (Table 1).
The relationship between the coil spacing and volt-
3.1 A typical CAPTIF project and coil layout age output is logarithmic and the software calculates
The CAPTIF APT facility (Figure 2) consists of a a calibration equation that takes the form:
circular concrete tank in which a pavement is con-
structed. The circular pavement is normally divided
into six sections (Figure 3). Each section can be a
where: y = mm, and x = volts (Figure 6).
different pavement material. A test machine with a
rotating chassis and two loading vehicles is mounted 3.2.2 Static strain software
on a central pedestal. A photoelectric beam is used on This software is used to log plastic strain measure-
each section of pavement to act as a trigger for the data ments from the coil sensors. It is normally left run-
acquisition when a vehicle passes through it. ning continuously during the life of the project. At a
A common coil layout (Figure 4) used at CAP- pre-determined lap or time interval a sequence is
TIF captures strains in thee dimensions. The main initiated whereby all the coils in the array are measured

116
 Table 1. Typical calibration data.

Date: 12/09/2010
Pair: S
tx coil no: 1
rx coil no: 2
plane: V
tx mux: 19
rx mux: 52
80 3.4293
78 3.6624
76 3.9172
74 4.1955
72 4.5003
80 3.4286
78 3.6623
76 3.9165
74 4.1950
72 4.4989
80 3.4274
78 3.6635
76 3.9181
74 4.1973
72 4.5010
Cal curve equation mm = Aln(X) + b
A: b: scale: residue:
−29.286 116.029 0.01902 0.0014

Figure 4. Cross section of coil array used at CAPTIF.

Figure 6. Typical calibration curve.

Figure 5. Jig used to calibrate the strain coil pair.

and recorded. A plot of displacement values with load

cycles at each coil pair (Figure 7) is produced with the
data.

3.2.3 Dynamic strain software

This software records the resilient strains caused by
separate loading events and has been designed to suit
the operation of the CAPTIF test track facility. A typi-
cal resilient strain record for a single coil pair is shown
in Figure 8. In this case the coil data has been directly Figure 7. Load cycles vs. change in coil pair spacing at coil
converted to displacement (mm) and data has been pair mid points.
captured as a trace of 4,000 samples at a sampling
frequency of 3,000 samples/sec.
sampling rate gives a higher temporal resolution to
The user has control over a number of parameters:
the event.
• Rate: This is the number of samples per second that • Samples per channel: Sufficient samples must be
the data acquisition system will record. A higher recorded to capture the whole transient event.

117
 Figure 9. Load cycles vs. peak vertical strain at coil pair
mid points.
Figure 8. Output from dynamic strain software.

• Start delay: A time delay is normally entered so

that recording does not start immediately after
the photo-detector has been triggered. This vehicle
takes a finite time to reach the coil array after pass-
ing through the detector. Data collected during this
passage would be redundant.
• Laps: The number of vehicle laps to record in the
data file.
• Input range: Enables selection of high or low
resolution.
• Use photo-trigger?: The data capture can be initi-
ated by a photo-trigger or a software trigger. Figure 10. Depth vs. peak vertical strain at varying load
• Save: Saves the data to a file cycles.
• Filter: Employs a software filter to remove
unwanted noise. This filter applies a 16th order
Butterworth filter with a pass-band of 0.45 Hz to After the resilient strains have been recorded the
10 Hz. It is only used in this case to smooth the data dynamic strain software is stopped and the static strain
for viewing. The un-filtered data is saved to file for software is set running again to record the plastic
later processing by the project researchers. strains.
The dynamic strain software operates as follows: Figure 9 presents the peak vertical compressive
strain for a stack of coils during the early stages of
1. The setup parameters for the test are entered on a project. The break in readings at 35,000 cycles indi-
the front panel. cates where a thin surface was applied and the load on
2. The vehicle is run up to the required speed. the vehicles was raised from 40 kN to 50 kN.
3. The software is ‘RUN’. A more traditional plot of strain with depth is pre-
4. The software loads the coil layout file. sented in Figure 10. The brake in the plot illustrates
5. The software switches in the first pair of the array. the change from the unbound basecourse layer to the
6. The software waits for a trigger. subgrade layer.
7. Data is acquired for that pair.
8. The software plots a graph of the coil voltage
measured.
9. The software then switches to the next coil in the 4 VALIDATION
layout file and waits for a new vehicle trigger.
10. The process is repeated until all the coil pairs have 4.1 Static strain validation with profilometer
been tested.
Figure 11 presents a comparison of the change in coil
11. The full set of coils will be tested again a number
spacings against vertical surface deformation (VSD),
of times according to the number of LAPS set.
which was measured on the pavement surface with
12. A data file is stored on the hard disk.
a transverse profile beam. There is a strong rela-
The data file is stored on the PXI machine disk. tion between the surface measurements and the coil
The data is the raw displacement (mm) measured from changes, as expected. The relationship is not one to
each coil pair. A peak strain value is also calculated one because the coil pairs do not extend fully to the
and recorded. bottom of the concrete tank (pavement boundary), do
The dynamic strain software is run at pre- not extend fully to the surface of the pavement, and
determined ‘lap intervals’during the life of the project. are slightly offset from the peak VSD reported.

118

Figure 11. Vertical surface deformation vs sum of coil
spacing changes.
4.2 Dynamic strain (Emu system) validation with
surface deflectometer and Falling Weight
Deflectometer (FWD)
In order to verify the accuracy of the εmu soil strain
system, the measured strains were integrated over
the depth of the pavement and compared against
the surface deflections measured with the CAPTIF
Deflectometer (a modified Benkelman beam with
continuous deflection readout) and a Dynatest FWD
(Steven, 2005). In order to reduce the effect that the
vehicle speed might have on the results, the strain
data for comparing the deflectometer results was cap-
tured when the loading vehicles were moving at a
steady speed of 6 km/h over the coils. The strain
data for the FWD results was captured as the FWD
was dropped over the coils. The pavement response
was measured under three different loading config-
urations for the deflectometer check and under four
different drop heights for the FWD check. These
checks were done on the pavement constructed for the
CAPTIF PR3-0404 research project after the applica-
tion of 600,000 load cycles. The pavement construc-
tion was 25 mm asphalt wearing course over 275 mm
premium aggregate basecourse over silty subgrade
with a California Bearing Ratio of 10%. In order
to integrate the measured strains over the full depth
of the pavement, several assumptions were made to
account for the sections of pavement that were not
monitored by the soil strain system. These assumptions
were:
– To calculate a linear regression for the basecourse
strains, the resulting line of best fit was extrap-
olated to the top of the basecourse and to the
basecourse/subgrade interface. A linear extrapola-
tion was chosen because the strains measured at
the three depths showed that the strains varied
linearly with depth;
119
Figure 12. Strain profile at Station 9 for 50 kN/850 kPa
wheel load at 6 km/h, PR3-0404 pavement.
– There was zero strain in the thin asphalt concrete
layer. This layer was 30 mm thick, therefore any
compression of the layer would be small com-
pared to the overall deflection/compression of the
pavement structure;
– To fit a straight line to the top two strain points
in the subgrade and to extrapolate this line up to
the basecourse/subgrade interface to determine the
strain at the top of the subgrade, and
– The strain decreased at a constant rate from the
measured value at lowest coil pair to a value of zero
at the bottom of the pavement tank (1,500 mm).
The different steps in the computations carried out
to integrate the strains are detailed below:
1. The as-constructed thicknesses of the asphalt
concrete and basecourse layers were determined
from the construction records.
2. The actual strain coil depths below the surface were
calculated from the construction records.
3. A straight line was fitted to the basecourse strains
(three values) using a least squares method. The fit-
ted line was extrapolated to the asphalt concrete/
basecourse and basecourse/subgrade interface
depths in order to determine the basecourse strains
at the top and bottom of the basecourse layer.
4. The extrapolated basecourse strains were inte-
grated over the thickness of the basecourse layer to
calculate the compression in the basecourse layer.
5. A straight line was fitted to the top two strain points
in the subgrade and this line was extrapolated up to
the basecourse/subgrade interface to determine the
strain at the top of the subgrade.
6. The subgrade strains were integrated over the
gauge length of the coil pairs and summed to
calculate the compression in the subgrade layer.
7. The calculated deflections were compared with the
measured deflection from the loading vehicle or
FWD.
A representative plot of the strain versus depth and
the lines that are fitted to the strains is shown in Fig-
ure 12. The area under the dashed line is calculated in
order to determine the surface deflection. A summary
Table 2. Results from strain integration calculations for a Table 3. Results from strain integration calculations for
rolling wheel. the FWD.

Station 9 Station 9 (FWD A)

Load/Pressure (kN/kPa) 40/650 40/850 50/850 FWD load (kN) 25.3 33.2 51.8 71.7
Integrated deflection (mm) 1.155 1.205 1.388 Integrated deflection (mm) 0.735 0.947 1.369 1.773
Deflectometer deflection (mm) 1.065 1.098 1.281 FWD deflection (mm) 0.642 0.837 1.200 1.426
% Difference 8.5% 9.8% 8.4% % Difference 14.5 13.1 14.1 24.3
Absolute difference (mm) 0.090 0.107 0.107 Absolute difference (mm) 0.093 0.110 0.169 0.347
Station 23 Station 23 (FWD A)
Load/Pressure (kN/kPa) 40/650 40/850 50/850 FWD load (kN) 23.8 31.2 48.3 67.6
Integrated deflection (mm) 1.139 1.161 1.349 Integrated deflection (mm) 0.624 0.808 1.219 1.556
Deflectometer deflection (mm) 1.167 1.146 1.310 Deflectometer deflection (mm) 0.578 0.765 1.184 1.413
% Difference −2.4% 1.3% 3.0% % Difference 8.0 5.7 3.0 10.1
Absolute difference (mm) −0.028 0.015 0.039 Absolute difference (mm) 0.046 0.043 0.035 0.143
Station 37 Station 9 (FWD B)
Load/Pressure (kN/kPa) 40/650 40/850 50/850 FWD load (kN) 20.3 42.5 57.1 70.8
Integrated deflection (mm) 0.855 0.860 1.039 Integrated deflection (mm) 0.603 1.129 1.424 1.658
Deflectometer deflection (mm) 0.710 0.686 0.805 Deflectometer deflection (mm) 0.502 1.023 1.324 1.550
% Difference 20.5% 25.3% 29.0% % Difference 20.1 10.3 7.5 7.0
Absolute difference (mm) 0.145 0.174 0.234 Absolute difference (mm) 0.101 0.106 0.100 0.108
Station 37 (FWD B)
FWD load (kN) 20.4 42.7 57.5 71.3
Integrated deflection (mm) 0.473 0.811 1.034 1.216
Deflectometer deflection (mm) 0.359 0.713 0.899 1.067
of the calculations for the strain/deflections measured
% Difference 31.8 13.7 15.0 13.9
by the deflectometer is shown in Table 2. Absolute difference (mm) 0.114 0.098 0.135 0.149
The calculated results for Stations 9 and 23 are
within the range of −2.4 to +9.8% of the measured
values. This is considered an acceptable result given
the various assumptions that were made. The calcu- 5 CONCLUSIONS
lated results for Station 37 show a greater variation
against the measured values, with calculated values CAPTIF has used, evaluated and modified various
ranging from 20.5 to 29.0% of the measured values. strain coil systems over many years. Each system
A possible reason for the bigger percentage difference has provided useful and appropriate data accord-
for the Station 37 results is that the actual deflection ing to the state-of-the-art technology of the day.
and strain values are lower than the other two stations This data has been validated with data output from
(approximately 0.73 versus 1.18 mm and 1,151 versus other measurement devices. Some coil systems proved
2,355 and 3,960 microstrain for the average strains at better suited for resilient strains and others for plastic
the top of the subgrade), and any inaccuracies in the strains. CAPTIF’s new system, using ‘off-the-shelf’
assumptions will have a bigger effect on the computed electronic modules has excellent stability and reso-
deflections. lution. It provides the best performance to date for
The same procedure was followed for the FWD combined resilient and plastic strain measurement.
measurements. In this test, the FWD weights were
dropped from four different heights and the response of ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
the strain coils was recorded for each drop height. The
FWD contractor carried out the testing in two visits to The authors acknowledge specific input from Alan
the CAPTIF facility. Due to other work requirements, Fussell, and Frank Adams who installed the system
the contractor was required to use two different FWD at the CAPTIF facility. The authors also gratefully
machines for the two visits, even though the visits were acknowledge New Zealand Transport Agency for
only three days apart. funding the CAPTIF project.
A summary of the calculations for the strain/
deflections measured by the FWD is shown in Table 3.
The deflections obtained by integrating the strains REFERENCES
from the FWD loading show a greater difference with
the deflections measured by the FWD device. For this Patterson,W.D.O. 1972. The measurement of Pavement
comparison, the differences are up to 25%, although Deformations using Induction Coils. Road Research Unit,
most (13 of 16) of the differences are 15% or less and National Roads Board, Wellington, New Zealand.
14 of the 16 measurements have differences that are Selig, E.T. 1969. A New Technique for Soil Strain Measure-
less than 0.150 mm. ment. State University of New York, Buffalo, NY.
Steven, B.D. 2005. The Development and Verification
In conclusion, these measurements show that the of a Pavement Response and Performance Model for
strains measured by the εmu soil strain system are Unbound Granular Pavements. PhD Thesis, University of
realistic, and that they can be verified against an Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
independent measurement method.

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