Using Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to monitor the effects of seasonal moisture variation on the structural capacity of pavements

•Moisture fluctuation severely impacts the performance and durability of roads.•GPR is suited for continuous and periodic monitoring of moisture levels of pavements.•Found reasonable agreement between GPR and FWD moisture impact assessment.•GPR scans help optimize FWD efforts by identifying vital test locations and periods.•GPR moisture assessments offer an efficient tool for asset management. Moisture fluctuations in pavement foundation due to environmental conditions (e.g., heavy precipitation, freeze–thaw cycles, groundwater table variation, etc.) can significantly affect pavements’ short- and long-term performance. Moisture variation in the pavement foundation is often monitored as a way to anticipate the structural capacity of pavements. Thus, the ability to monitor moisture variation through a proven non-destructive technology (NDT) such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) would be beneficial for asset management by transportation agencies. This paper summarizes the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDOT) efforts at validating the use of GPR to monitor moisture in the pavement foundation through comparison with Falling-Weight Deflectometer (FWD) parameters that represent the structural condition of the pavement. The results in this paper are based on GPR, FWD and in-place moisture sensor data collected over 17 months on MnROAD instrumented test sections. The pavement test sections considered in this study included unbound aggregate bases (UAB) with virgin and recycled materials (i.e., RCA and RAP) covering a broad range of geotechnical behavior. Previous efforts established a strong correlation between GPR-based moisture measurements and sensor-based moisture measurements. This correlation is further validated by investigating the relationship between GPR-based moisture measurements and FWD-based indices for structural capacity. The observed correlation is reasonable and in good agreement with the expected correlation between volumetric moisture content (VMC) of the base layer and the structural capacity of a pavement. This agreement validates the use of GPR to monitor moisture in pavement foundation. GPR is not a replacement for FWD, but it can be used in asset management efforts in addition to FWD to assess moisture fluctuation in pavement foundation during and after extreme environmental events (e.g., flooding, freeze-thawing) to determine when and where FWD testing may be necessary.