Providing a new criterion to evaluate the skid resistance of asphalt pavement

The friction of a pavement surface indicates safety of a pavement. Pavement friction properties depend on pavement surface’s microtexture and macrotexture characteristics. Recently, considerable attention has been paid by researchers to find new methods and procedures for more accurate and quick measurement of the pavement skid resistance. Most of the proposed approaches in this regard have been in the range of non-contact methods, the use of laser and digital images. It has been found that image processing as a non-contact method with adequate precision and high speed can prove to be a promising and effective approach for further research on determining the pavement skid resistance. In this paper an intelligent system based on image processing is introduced which analyzes the texture of the pavement and presents a new index for pavement skid resistance by taking the effects of horizontal, vertical and diagonal components of its texture into consideration. By comparing the results of the proposed system and the corresponding British pendulum test results (BPN) it can be said that, the proposed system through using the image processing technology and more accurate assessment of pavement textures is capable of better recognizing the pavement textures and can produce repeatable results associated with the pavement skid resistance.