Pavements macrotexture monitoring through sound generated by the tire pavement interaction

This thesis confirms the possibility of monitoring friction of pavement through pavement macrotexture from acoustic measurements underneath the body of a moving vehicle. Currently, macrotexture is quantified by a Mean Texture Depth (MTD) index. In the present work, MTD is estimated from the sound generated by the tire-pavement interaction in a moving vehicle. To establish this approach, experiments were performed at the National Center for Asphalt Technology in Auburn, Alabama.