Infrared Thermometry in Winter Road Maintenance

Abstract

There is significant interest among road authorities in measuring pavement conditions to perform appropriate winter road maintenance. The most common monitoring methods are based on pavement-mounted sensors. This study's hypothesis is that the temperature distribution in a pavement can be measured by means of a nonintrusive method to retrieve the topmost pavement temperature values. By utilizing the latest infrared (IR) technology, it is possible to retrieve additional information concerning both road temperatures and road conditions. The authors discovered that surface temperature readings from IR sensors are more reliable than data retrieved from traditional surface-mounted sensors during wet, snowy, or icy road conditions. It was also possible to detect changes in the road condition by examining how the temperatures in wheel tracks and in between the wheel tracks differ from a reference dry road condition. The conclusion was that nonintrusive measurement of the road temperature is able to provide an increase in relation to the knowledge about both the road temperature and the road condition. Another conclusion was that the surface temperature should not be considered as being equal to the ground temperatures retrieved from traditional surface-mounted sensors except under conditions of dry, stable roadways.

Development of a Probabilistic Subfreezing Road Temperature Nowcast and Forecast Using Machine Learning

“…Field tests conducted by Scott et al (2005) show that sensor accuracy can be greatly impacted for different daily thermal cycles. Road temperature measurements from infrared (IR) thermometry and surface-mounted sensors can differ significantly, especially during snowy and icy road conditions (Jonsson and Riehm 2012). Since the installation and maintenance of RWIS sites is at the discretion of state DOTs, it is possible that varying degrees of accuracy can be exhibited from one state to another, especially if the sensors are provided by different manufacturers.…”

Runway Icing Prediction Method and System Development Based on ActiveX Controls

“…where ϕ is the latitude of the measuring point; δ is the solar declination; h 0 is the solar elevation angle; γ is the time angle; m is the atmospheric optical quality; and f is the weakening coefficient of the atmosphere to solar radiation. In formula (4), considering that the temperature needs to be deduced is after a certain period of time in the future, the time angle brought into the calculation is chosen here as the time angle of a certain period in the future.…”

“…However, the authors had pointed out that they did not take the incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave radiation from the airport into account, and there is room for improvement. Jonsson and Riehm [4] established a method for nonintrusive temperature measure of pavement by using infrared technology, and explored the feasibility of this method. Riehm et al [5] built passive and active detection systems by means of infrared temperature measurement system.…”

Compact Weather Sensor Node for Predicting Road Surface Temperature

“…A typical system consists of various sensors, including air temperature/dew point sensors, wind speed and direction sensors, precipitation sensors, and road surface and subsurface sensors. (3) The road surface sensor is installed in the pavement to measure its temperature and status. However, these sensors are often in contact with car wheels, leading to increased maintenance and reduced reliability.…”