FALLING WEIGHT

DEFLECTOMETER
TEST (FWD)

•Regd. Office : B -10, Krishna Industrial Estate,

•Op. B.I.D.C. Gorwa Estate,
•Vadodara - 390 016 (Gujarat) India.

•Contact : +91 265 2282305

•Telefax : +91 265 2282014
•Email : gthpmc@gmail.com/info@geogroup.in
•Website: www.geogroup.in
CONTENT

INTRODUCTION
STRUCTURAL EVALUATION OF FWD
PRINCIPLE OF FWD
SPECIFICATION OF FWD
CALIBRATION OF FWD
PAVEMENT EVALUATION SURVEY AND DATA
COLLECTION
ANALYSIS OF FIELD DATA
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION

Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) is an impulse-

loading device in which a transient load is applied to
the pavement and the deflected shape of the pavement
surface is measured
STRUCTURAL EVALUATION

Structural evaluation of pavements involves application

of standard load to the pavement and measuring its
response in terms of deflection
PRINCIPLE OF FWD

The working principle of the FWD is mass of weights is

dropped from a pre-determined height on to a series of
springs placed on top of a loading plate. The
corresponding peak vertical surface deflections at
different radial locations are measured.

Working principle of FWD

 SPECIFICATION OF FWD
Specification of FWD as per IRC : 115-2014
Sr
FWD Component IRC Recommended specification for FWD KUAB-150kN VM-SPGE Specification
No.

1 Plate Diameter 300/450mm 300mm

2 Mass System Single Mass Single Mass
3 Falling weight mass 50 to 350kg 300 Kg
4 Height of Fall 100 to 600mm Variable
5 Target Peak load 40 KN (+/- 4KN) Peak load range 10 – 150 KN
6 Load Rise time 5 to 30 ms. 12 ms.
7 Load cell Accuracy +/- 2 % +/- 2 %
8 No. of Deflection Transducers 6 to 9 9
9 Deflection sensor types Geophones Geophones

10 Reading Resolution of deflection

Transducers
Min 1 micrometre 1 micrometre

11 Deflection transducers Accuracy +/- 2 % +/- 2 %

FALLING WEIGHT DEFLECTOMETER (FWD)
PAVEMENT EVALUATION SURVEY AND DATA COLLECTION

 Historical data about Pavement

 Pavement Condition Survey

 Deflection measurements using FWD

HISTORICAL DATA ABOUT PAVEMENT

 Historical data on pavement can be useful in identifying the reasons

for distresses and in establishing whether the distresses were caused

by deficiency in design, poor material selection, improper construction

and other reasons such as high water table and poor drainage
PAVEMENT CONDITION SURVEY

 Pavement condition survey precede the actual deflection

measurement and consists primarily of visual observations

supplemented by measurements for estimation of cracking, rutting

and other distresses in the pavement.

 CRITERIA FOR CLASSIFICATION OF PAVEMENT SECTIONS

Sr
No. Classification Pavement Condition

Isolated cracks of less than 3.0 mm width in less than 5 % area of total paved
1 Good surface AND average rut depth less than 10 mm

Isolated or interconnected cracks of less than 3.0 mm width in 5 to 20

2 Fair % area of total paved surface AND/OR average rut depth between 10 to 20
mm

Wide interconnected cracking of more than 3.0 mm width in 5 to 20

% area (include area of patching and ravelling in this) of paved area OR
3 Poor cracking of any type in more than 20% area of paved surface AND/OR
average rut depth of more than 20mm
Estimation of sample size for deflection measurement

Note : 90 % Confidence level and 10 % margin of error (ME expressed as

percentage of mean) considered in the guidelines
Cv-coefficient of variation for
• Good – 15%
• Fair – 30 %
• Poor – 45%
• Z Value – 1.285
GUIDELINES FOR SELECTION OF DEFLECTION MEASUREMENT SCHEME
STEPS INVOLVED IN MEASURING THE DEFLECTION

 Mark the test point on the pavement.

 Raise the mass to pre-determined height required to producing a target

load of 40 KN.

 Raise the mass and drop. Record load and deflection data into the computer

through the data acquisition system.

 Record Air and Pavement temperature at hourly interval

 Measure pavement temperature by drillings holes of 40mm depth into the

pavement surface layer.

 Deflection measurement should not be made when the pavement

temperature is more than 45 degree centigrade.

 ANALYSIS OF FIELD DATA AS PER IRC 115 : 2014

 Raw data extraction

 Normalization and Average
 Min & Max range for BT, Granular and Subgrade layers
 Crust thickness
 KGP BACK Analysis (E-Values)
 Temperature Corrections
 Seasonal Corrections
 Identification of Homogeneous sections
 15 Percentile value
 Calculating Strain by IIT Pave
 Calculating Fatigue and Rutting Life
 Calculating Remaining life
 Calculating Overlay
SCREEN SHOT OF KGPBAK -INPUT
SCREEN SHOT OF KGPBAK -OUTPUT
SCREEN SHOT OF IITPAVE -INPUT
SCREEN SHOT OF IITPAVE -OUTPUT
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