Trr No. 1377 Pavement Design, Management, And Performance, pp. 36-44
Nondestructive deflection testing using falling weight deflectometers (FWDs) is one element of the monitoring effort currently under way by the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) for the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) study. Because accurate data are key to the success of the LTPP study, SHRP has implemented a number of measures to ensure the quality of deflection data. They include equipment comparison and calibration, Standardized field testing procedures and field data checks, and quality assurance software. SHRP FWD quality assurance software is the focus-specifically the FWDSCAN and FWDCHECK computer programs. Program FWDSCAN has been developed to verify the integrity and completeness of the FWD deflection data after they have been delivered to the SHRP regional offices. Program FWDCHECK has been developed to analyze deflection data for test section homogeneity, the degree to which test pit data are representative of the section, the presence of data outliers within the section, and overall reasonableness from a structural capacity viewpoint.