Research on the Relationship between the Loading and the Conductivity of Smart Asphalt Concrete

Carbon fiber is used as the additive for the intelligent asphalt concrete. The relationship of the fiber volume and the concrete resistivity, and the relationship of the resistivity and the applied pressure were studied. The conductivity of asphalt concrete incorporating with carbon fiber changes with the magnitude of the applied pressure. This special characteristic of the material might be useful in the road engineering in two areas: (1) when pavement of this material are under loading, the change of the pressure can be reflected by measuring the resistivity of the material. The supervisor could monitor the loads of vehicle anywhere in the road network without the trouble of embedding sensors in the pavement. (2) If there are some defects that are difficult to be discover by visual method appear on the road, the supervisor could find them at the first time. According to the result of this paper, the conductivity of the asphalt concrete increases with the volume of fiber. The change is particularly prominent when the fiber volume is between the two mutant levels (with fibers of 4%–6%).