Investigating key factors of intelligent compaction for asphalt paving: A comparative case study

As an innovative technology, intelligent compaction (IC) needs an in-depth investigation to improve its applicability for asphalt compaction. For the same asphalt base layer compaction, the potential for utilizing Compaction Meter Value (CMV) to evaluate the asphalt compaction varies based on different underlying support. In this study, the key factors of IC technology for asphalt compaction including underlying support, asphalt temperature, and roller parameters were investigated based on two asphalt base layer projects conducted in the United States and China. It was found that different underlying supports can affect the sensitivity of CMV with respect to the asphalt modulus. For the project with an untreated aggregate base layer, the lack of relevance between CMV and asphalt temperature (R-2 = 0.0) proves that the CMV in this case mainly reflects the stiffness of the underlying support. However, the relevance between CMV and asphalt temperature is significant (R-2 = 0.35 similar to 0.72) for the project with a cement stabilized aggregate base layer, reflecting that CMV is sensitive to the change of asphalt modulus. Changes of roller parameters can also affect the correlation between CMV and asphalt modulus. Based on the analysis, it is suggested that establishing a series of detailed compaction curves corresponding to temperature could be the key to enhance the IC asphalt compaction. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.