Refinement of a Deflection Basin Area Index Method for Rigid Pavement

The accuracy of the prediction and reliability of the deflection basin area index method for rigid pavement heavily depend on the sensor layout scheme and the calculation theory. A total of 154 groups of deflection data were generated by the finite element software in different conditions, and the simulated results were in good agreement with the analytical solutions of thin plates on elastic foundation. The accuracy of several types of deflection basin area index methods was assessed with the database of pavement deflection results. It is found that, apart from densifying the distal sensor layouts locally, replacing the deflection value of a specific point with the average of all measured points in the deflection basin area index was also an effective measure to improve the back-calculation accuracy of pavement structural parameters up to 40%. Finally, a new deflection basin area index method was proposed based on the deflection database with the regression analysis. Comparisons between the theoretical calculations of several models and the practical deflection data of an airport in northern China revealed that the newly proposed method performs better on the back-calculation accuracy and efficiency, which can provide a valuable guideline for the practical engineering in the design.