Evaluation and Remedy of Asphalt Concrete QualityUsing an Expert System

Abstract

A significant amount of engineering judgment is required in the decision of whether to accept the deviation in the quality of asphalt concrete from job mix formula or specification requirements and the remedy to be taken regarding the measures and penalty to be decided. Such measurements and decisions are difficult to confine. In this paper, attention is directed toward the quality of asphalt concrete mix constituents (aggregate gradation, asphalt content & voids) and their physical properties (Marshall Stability & flow).
The acceptable quality of the constituents depends on general requirements of the material. The development of an advisory expert system in the domain of flexible pavement quality is presented. The developed system is called ACQAES (Asphalt Concrete Quality Advisory Expert System).
The knowledge base of the system contains heuristic rules extracted from literature survey and a consultant’s report from Ministry of Housing and Construction. It was felt that such system could meet the practical demand of road construction & quality control