Road Profiler Performance Evaluation and Accuracy Criteria Analysis

Road smoothness is one of the most important road functional characteristics because it affects ride quality, operation cost, and vehicle dynamic load. There are many types of devices that measure the road profile, which is often used to compute different smoothness indices. The development of performance-based specifications and pavement warranties that use ride quality as a performance measure has increased the need for accurate measurement of pavement smoothness. For this reason, researchers have compared and evaluated the performance of available profilers and several profiler accuracy criteria have been proposed. However, there is not a definite answer on the ability of available profilers to accurately measure the actual road profile as well as the various smoothness indices. A recent profiler round-up compared the performance of 68 profilers on five test sections at Virginia Smart Road. The equipment evaluated included high-speed, light-weight, and walking-speed profilers, in addition to the reference device (rod and level). The test sites included two sites with traditional hot-mix asphalt (HMA) surfaces