Automatic measurement of runway grooving construction for pavement skid evaluation

Grooved construction on airport runways has been proven to greatly improve the drainage efficiency and skid resistance of pavement. However, there exist very few measurement methodologies that are capable of successfully assessing information about the grooves other than manual random sampling. An automatic measuring instrument equipped with a laser displacement sensor and an accelerometer mounted on a low-speed scooter is developed in this study. Pilot simulation tests were conducted first to study the feasibility and reliability of the instrument. The mean error percentage of the instrument is 2.27%, 4.45%, and 3.14% in measuring depth, width, and spacing, respectively, which indicates that the developed instrument can provide a relatively reliable accuracy in the measurement of groove sizes. Groove configuration and skid resistant capability of two airport runways were measured, and the result obtained from field experiments showed that the quality of grooving construction is crucial to skid resistance of pavement. Preliminary studies show promising results in enhancing the efficiency of the evaluation of grooved pavement. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.