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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

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Title:

A Mobile Road Condition Sensor as Winter Maintenance Aid

Abstract:

This report describes design, development, calibration, and testing of a compact, lightweight, vehicle-mounted sensor system based on backscatter of infrared radiation (emitted by an onboard light source) from the road surface. The sensor system is designed to detect and continuously monitor films and layers of ice, water, snow, sand and other substances on asphalt and concrete pavement surfaces. The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) mounted the prototype sensor on their Instrumented Research Vehicle and conducted tests on wet, icy, and snow-layered roads during winter in New Hampshire. Simultaneous measurements of vehicle traction were also made. Additional winter tests at low speeds were conducted with a Massachusetts Highway Department pick-up truck and a Colorado DOT winter road maintenance vehicle. The data from all tests clearly demonstrate the ability of the prototype device to characterize and discriminate among various road conditions.

Source(s):

Physical Sciences, Inc.; prepared for the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the FHWA, Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis Programs

http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sp/its-idea_85.pdf

Date: 2002

Author:

Joshi

Keywords:


Pavement friction
Mobile sensing

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