Evaluation of Highway Pavement Structural Conditions Based on Measured Crack Morphology by 3D GPR and Finite Element Modeling

Structural cracks are internal distresses that cannot be observed from pavement surfaces. However, the existing evaluation methods for asphalt pavement structures lack the consideration of these cracks, which are crucial for accurate pavement assessment and effective maintenance planning. This study develops a novel framework combining a three-dimensional (3D) ground penetrating radar (GPR) and finite element modeling (FEM) to evaluate the severity of structural cracks. First, the size and depth development of structural cracks on a four-layer asphalt pavement were determined using the 3D GPR. Then, the range of influence of the structural crack on structural bearing capacity was analyzed based on 3D FEM simulation model. Structural cracks have a distance-dependent diminishing influence on the deflection in the horizontal direction, with the most pronounced effects within a 20-cm width zone surrounding the cracks. Finally, two indices have been proposed: the pavement structural crack index (PSCI) to assess the depth of crack damage and the structural crack reflection ratio (SCRR) to evaluate surface reflection. Besides, PSCI and SCRR are used to classify the severities of structural cracks: none, low, and high. The threshold between none/low damage is a structural crack damage rate of 0.19%, and the threshold between low/high damage is 0.663%. An experiment on a 132-km expressway indicated that the proposed method achieved 94.4% accuracy via coring. The results also demonstrate the strong correlation between PSCI and pavement deflection (R² = 0.92), supporting performance-based maintenance strategies. The results also demonstrate the correlation between structural and surface cracks, with 65.8% of the cracked sections having both structural and surface cracks.