Keeping Our Roads Smooth
Pothole patching with a spray-injection device.Copyright 2005 Michal Maňas, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pothole_patching.jpg
Students learn how roadways are designed and constructed, and discuss the advantages and limitations of the current roadway construction process. They look at current practices of roadway monitoring, discuss the limitations, and consider ways to further road monitoring research. To conclude, student groups compete to design smooth, cost-efficient and sound model road bases using gravel, sand, water and rubber (representing asphalt). This lesson prepares students for the associated activity in which they act as civil engineers hired by USDOT to research through their own model experimentation how to best use piezoelectric materials to detect road damage by showing how piezoelectric transducers can indicate road damage.
Civil engineers are vital to the development, construction and maintenance of the human-made structures in our world. They make sure the structures are safe, well designed and built—and decide how to repair them when necessary. Roads are one type of structure. When designing roads, civil engineers consider factors such as ground conditions, weather, and traffic volumes. Being able to continually monitor the physical condition of roads helps engineers improve road construction and maintenance. Engineers are continually devising road maintenance techniques to find ways to replace current sensors that monitor road damage. Most current road sensors are battery-powered, which has the limitation of exhausted batteries, and solar power won’t work for devices embedded in asphalt. Researchers are developing and testing the use of piezoelectric material—which converts mechanical energy to electrical energy when pressed—to harvest road vibration energy to power the sensors to collect data that is useful to detect and predict damage trends.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Analyze the road construction process.
- Discuss the limitations on current road monitoring techniques and provide solutions.