Field Testing

Abatech has invested in various equipment and technology for the evaluation of pavements and materials.  Services include coring, lab testing, and non-destructive pavement testing using both the Falling Weight Deflectometer and Light Weight Deflectometer as described below.


Falling Weight Deflectometer

FWDs are test systems for performing non-destructive testing of pavements and other foundation structures. The system develops forces from the acceleration caused by the arrest of a falling weight and these forces are transmitted onto the surface of a structure causing it to deflect as much as it would due to the weight of a passing wheel load. The deformation of the structure is referred to as a "deflection basin" and a series of user positioned velocity sensors automatically determine the amplitude and shape of this deflected basin. The deflection response, when related to the applied loading, can provide information about the strength and condition of the various elements of the pavement structure. Abatech's staff members have been involved with FWD testing and analysis since its inception in the 1980s providing solutions to countless pavement structures around the world. Abatech operates a state-of-the-art JILS Falling Weight Deflectometer which has been used for projects in Europe, the Caribbean and the USA. Abatech has developed numerical procedures for pavement design and is a leading organization in writing software applications. The DAPS software (Deflection Analysis of Pavements).

Light Weight Deflectometer

LWDs (or dynamic loading plate) enable the determination of appropriate stiffness of pavement foundations (modulus value) is critical in that it allows pavements to be deigned using analytical methods and/or methods such as the 1993 AASHTO method.  All these methods make use of a foundation modulus value in determination of the pavement structure.

Many methods exist to provide an estimate of the Efoundation of a road pavement.  Methods such as California Bearing Ratio (CBR) testing provide an empirical correlation to a modulus value and have been in use for many years.  More recently the Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) testing has become the standard for assessing the stiffness of road foundations.  However, the use of the FWD requires that the site to be evaluated is relatively easy to access and can be reached with a vehicle/tow vehicle in a reasonably cost effective manner.  This is not always possible with remote sites and consequently other methods are needed.  This could involve the use of tests such as CBR and empirical correlations.  However, more recently sophisticated lightweight deflectometers (LWD) have become available that are portable to remote sites, enabling direct computation of Efoundation values.


Pavement Investigations

Can involve a wide range of specimen collection followed by detailed chain-of-custody documentation followed by various lab testing.  Testing is supplemented by other studies such as FWD, laser surveys, ground penetrating radar, DCP, light weight deflection testing, etc.

Abatech has access to a large range of laboratory testing procedures and uses the most sophisticated analysis and integration of results to provide clients with a realistic and meaningful analysis of laboratory test results.


Dynamic Cone Penetrometer

This device can help to assess the strength of granular pavement layers including soils and subbase materials.