Real-time monitoring of asphalt mixture mixing process

To control the mixing quality and mixing state of asphalt mixture during the road construction process, a method based on the template matching recognition algorithm in a non-intrusive manner was proposed to extract the asphalt mixture principal component data, such as aggregate, powder, asphalt quality data, mixing time, and temperature in real-time. Based on the identified asphalt mixture data information, the time sequence logic relationship between data acquisition and transmission was established. The WEB monitoring center visually displayed the key information such as the asphalt mixture ratio error, gradation error, mixing time, and temperature. The multimodal information fusion strategy was used to evaluate the asphalt mixture's mixing quality. Based on the prior knowledge of asphalt mixture type during the construction process, the dynamic change of mixture data was analyzed, and the type of asphalt mixture produced in real-time was automatically identified without the manual intervention. The running and screening statuses of mixing equipment were determined by the established model distribution of aggregate data and the mixing time. The historical data were queried across time and the construction cost was assessed according to the stored real-time received data. Research result shows that the time for collecting the character data of asphalt mixture is 4.9 ms by using the template matching recognition algorithm, and the recognition accuracy rate is up to 100%. It meets the time interval requirement that the mixing data collection of asphalt mixture during the construction is less than 0.02 s. The continuous detection, automatic identification, real-time tracking and visual monitoring on asphalt mixture data during the construction process are realized. The real-time warning is realized when the quality of asphalt mixture is unqualified or the mixing equipment fails. It provides a basis for the comprehensive evaluation of mixing process and the real-time control of mixing quality for asphalt mixture. 4 tabs, 11 figs, 33 refs. © 2019, Editorial Department of Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering. All right reserved.