Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0
Title:
Roadway Weather Information Systems (RWIS) Pavement Sensor Bench Test
Abstract:
RWIS pavement sensors from three vendors were evaluated under controlled conditions in a climate chamber. One vendor supplied an active sensor combined with an active/passive sensor, and the other two supplied passive sensors. The sensors were tested for accuracy and performance of temperature, freezing point, chemical percentage or index, surface status, and liquid depth, where appropriate. Accuracy varied from 100 percent at the beginning to 92 percent at the end, to overall inaccuracy by one vendor's sensor. The surface temperature reported by each sensor system during cooling was found to lag 4 to 7 degrees C behind that measured by independent probes. The active sensor freezing point value performance also varied between sensors from inconsistent, generally accurate for initial freezing points for NaCl solutions but biased towards higher values (lower concentrations), and lack of correlation with the salt concentration.
Source(s):
83rd Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, Ohio University. For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.
Date: 2004
Author:
Zwahlen, Russ, Badurdeen, Vatan
Keywords:
Pavement temperature
Environmental Sensor Station (ESS)
Snow
Ice/Frost
Anti-icing/deicing
Winter maintenance
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