The linear swept sine method to determine the dispersion curve of structural pavement

Abstract Pavement evaluation must be performed in nondestructive ways. This includes using the multichannel analysis of surface waves method by recording waves detected by multiple sensors from one active source. However, heavy traffic produces noise and reduces the detection quality as the sensor moves further away from the measurement source. We need a pavement evaluation method that is immune to noise. The linear swept-sine method presented in this paper has a very high resistance to noise by using a wide frequency band vibration source to the ground received by a single accelerometer at a small distance. The noise resistance is obtained by applying a tracking filter at the receiver (accelerometer), which accepts the signal with the frequency swept linearly at the same rate as the transmitter. This tracking filter has a low-frequency component equal to the phase delay between the source and the receiver, even when the transmitted source is generated in the high-frequency range. The dispersion curve is calculated and inverted by using the surface wave inversion method to obtain the velocity model below the pavement by calculating the delay for each data segment.