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Paving and Compaction Support Systems. The status of implementation worldwide

Pilataxi Araujo, T.J. (2021) Paving and Compaction Support Systems. The status of implementation worldwide.

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Abstract:Every year, the private and public sectors invest vast amounts of money on asphalt construction because it plays a crucial role in the global transportation infrastructure. Therefore, asphalt construction is a process that should be closely monitored. In this sense, many paving and compaction support systems have been developed to assist the operators during their work operations. The present study aims to report the state of the art of paving and compaction support systems worldwide. This aim can be achieved by answering the question: How can the implementation and adoption of paving and compaction support systems for asphalt construction be fast-tracked given current approaches in development, contractual forms and regulations? By employing different research methods (i.e. literature review, interviews, qualitative analysis, Best-Worst Method), the necessary information to answer this question can be retrieved. The literature review was crucial for this study since it enabled the collection of information about paving and compaction support systems and the available solutions in the market. Additionally, the study focused on the differences between compaction support systems for soil and asphalt. Since their use has lagged, especially when it comes to asphalt compaction, it was possible to identify existing solutions from a research and development perspective. Likewise, the existing specifications and guideline documents for implementing paving and compaction support systems in road construction projects from different world regions were analysed. The gathered information served to identify the trends and views of the road construction industry from the clients perspective. Hence, this information served as a base for developing interviews conducted in this research with road construction industry specialists. Interviews with specialists from the asphalt construction sector (e.g. contractors and machine manufacturers) were performed. The obtained information was then analysed, and the enablers and barriers to implementing high-tech solutions were determined. In order to classify the enablers and barriers of these technologies according to their importance, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method called Best-Worst Method (BWM) was applied. Two workshops were organized to retrieve the necessary information for using the BWM. Consequently, the technique allowed to obtain the weights of the enablers and barriers to categorize them in order of importance. This report concludes that the most important enabler for the use of paving and compaction support systems is Long-term pavement performance. Therefore, it is important to widespread this enabler within the road infrastructure sector. In this way, the use of such technologies could be increased. At the same time, the most important barrier is Closed systems for integration. Hence, it is important to overcome this barrier by enabling data transfer and communication between machines. Likewise, it is important to focus on overcoming other barriers such as: Additional training, Increased systems costs, Paving and Compaction treated separately and Operator’s mindset.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Programme:Civil Engineering BSc (56952)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/88628
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