Development of a Device for Measuring the Load Bearing Capacity of a Farm Road

Abstract

The maintenance of infrastructure for agricultural production is essential to sustainable agricultural productivity. Farm roads are particularly important infrastructure for transporting agricultural products. Load-bearing capacity is a performance index for evaluating the soundness of a road, and recently, falling weight deflectometer (FWD) tests have been used to measure such capacity. However, an FWD is a stationary device, so its use is time intensive. This study aims to develop a moving wheel deflectometer (MWD) device that determines the load-bearing capacity continuously and economically, for the efficient management of farm roads. For that reason, the development of the MWD involved fabrication, testing and the verification of its practicality on a public road. The MWD was used to estimate the load-bearing capacity of a public road at travel speeds of 10 to 60 km/h. The soundness evaluated based on the MWD measurements were shown to be comparable to that as evaluated by the FWD at all travel speeds. The results demonstrate that the MWD has the potential to be used for the comprehensive measurement of load-bearing capacity.