Reconstruction and analysis of asphalt pavement texture using bilateral narrow angle photography

In order to meet the requirements of acquiring pavement texture for unmanned vehicles, a method for the reconstruction of three-dimensional(3D) pavement surface using the bilateral narrow angle photography is developed. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed reconstruction method, the surface of compacted asphalt mixture and asphalt pavement are reconstructed, and the mean texture depth(MTD) is calculated and compared to those from the methods of the sand patch and surrounding photography. The new indexes including the standard deviation(SD) of texture depth, peak number per unit area and SD of peak height are established and applied in the analysis of three types of asphalt mixture(i.e. AC-13, SMA-13, and OGFC-13). Results show that the 3D point cloud and texture of pavement surface can be reconstructed using the bilateral narrow angle photography. There is no obvious difference of measured MTD among the three methods of the sand patch, surrounding photography and bilateral narrow angle photography. The proposed method is not only suitable for compacted asphalt mixture in laboratory but also for asphalt pavement. The established indexes can provide complete texture information for unmanned vehicles including the distribution of texture depth and concentration of contact stress between pavement surface and vehicle tire. © 2021, Editorial Department of Journal of Southeast University. All right reserved.