The Design, Construction and Operation of the APT Facility at the University of Texas at Arlington
The University of Texas at Arlington has decided to own and operate an Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) facility in 2012 to expand its research capabilities. The facility is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth urban area on university owned land. The loadi
- PDF / 4,103,618 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 104 Downloads / 204 Views
Abstract. The University of Texas at Arlington has decided to own and operate an Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) facility in 2012 to expand its research capabilities. The facility is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth urban area on university owned land. The loading machine is a mobile linear device capable of loading two pavements simultaneously at a rate of about 100,000 passes per week. The maximum axle load that can be applied is 162 kN (36 kip). Unidirectional and bi-directional loading can be accommodated. Controlled heating and cooling of the air above the tested pavement section is also possible. The facility and the loading machine were designed and built entirely with internal funds over an eighteen-month period. Two research projects have been conducted in close collaboration with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) to study the optimization of asphalt mixes containing various percentages of Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) and Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS). The paper presents the development of the APT facility and the main features of the loading machine and discusses the experience with the construction and the four-year long operation. The reasoning behind the design choices, the financial decision making, the challenges as well as the successes are highlighted. Keywords: Facility design Instrumentation
Pavement testing machine Operation
1 Introduction The University of Texas at Arlington started to develop an Accelerated Pavement Testing facility (APT) in 2012, reflecting the desire to expand the pavement research capabilities within the University. The facility is unique in the United States not only because it is entirely owned and operated by a university but also because it was developed with internal funds. Most APT facilities in the United States are either owned and operated by state or federal transportation agencies or have been built with funding from these agencies due to their high initial costs. Having an APT facility at the University brings national and international prominence and visibility to the University. It enhances the research capabilities in the pavement engineering field, it © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 A. Chabot et al. (Eds.): Accelerated Pavement Testing to Transport Infrastructure Innovation, LNCE 96, pp. 12–20, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55236-7_2
The Design, Construction and Operation of the APT Facility
13
fosters increased collaboration with other universities and it increases the graduate student enrollment. It is a cost effective investment and effort which allows the University to serve better its constituents.
2 Test Site The Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility (APTF) was constructed on University owned land near The University of Texas at Arlington’s Research Institute (UTARI), near State Highway SH-820, about one mile north of Interstate Highway I-30, on the east side of Fort Worth, TX. The site is located less than a mile away from an asphalt plant owned by a local paving contractor, which has produced and placed t
Data Loading...
