A study on the relationship between mean texture depth and mean profile depth of asphalt pavements

• Mean profile depth (MPD) and mean texture depth (MTD) of asphalt pavements were investigated.
• MPD is a purely geometric indicator.
• MTD is affected by dense granular flows.
• MTD–MPD relationship diverges from linearity when open-graded mixtures are considered.

Safety, skid resistance and noise of roads highly depend on the characteristics of pavement surface texture, for both porous and dense-graded wearing courses.In the light of the above facts, the objective of the study was to model the relationship between laser-based and volumetric-type measurements of the surface macro-texture of a pavement. In more detail, the study focused on the mean profile depth (MPD, as per ISO 13473-1:1997 and ASTM E1845-01) and on the mean texture depth (MTD, as known as sand patch texture, as per ASTM E965-96 and EN 13036-1). Different types of surface textures were considered: dense-graded friction courses (DGFC), splittmastic asphalts (SMA), open-graded friction courses (OGFC), porous European mixes (PEM).A generalised simple model has been set up, calibrated and validated. The proposed model fits the data of many types of wearing courses without neglecting the basic achievements which refer to the curves previously derived.

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