| In the pursuit of a unified life-cycle pavement design methodology, a specially integrated stress-wave Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation NDE system is developed for use in probing several geometrical, mechanical, and microstructural parameters of pavement systems, components, and materials. To evaluate such parameters, a modified version of the impulse-echo method was incorporated within the testing system. The NDE method provides the experimental means of performing elastodynamic, spectral, and modal energy analyses, i.e., Statistical Energy Analysis SEA. It also allows performing diffuse-wave-field analyses, and analogies-to-solid-media of architectural-acoustic theories on reverberant enclosures. In terms of such theories, and as a typical engineering application, the propagation of the impulse-generated stress-waves in asphalt concrete, and other engineering materials, are presented. The modified NDE method, therefore, provides an elementary step towards the future development of a unified life-cycle design-and-management methodology of engineering materials and systems.; Energy-related processes in engineering systems and materials are numerous and may collectively describe most meaningful mechanical and physical features of the material/system. Those features may be retrieved using single, or ensemble-averaged, impulse-generated NDE tests using the methodology presented in this work. As a result, the NDE method may be considered as a forward step towards the development of a universal design, characterization, and evaluation methodology that integrates the NDE method, and which is equally applicable to all physically possible media. Engineering features that may be studied using energy analyses include structural efficiency, component coupling details, material viscoelastic properties and many other microstructural features. |
