Intelligent pavement for traffic flow detection

This research studies a new approach in detecting vehicles on a roadway by making a roadway section itself as a traffic flow detector. In this approach, sections of a given roadway are paved with carbon-nanotube (CNT)/cement composites and the piezoresitive property of carbon-nanotubes enables the composite to detect the traffic flow passing over. Experimental results show that the fabricated self-sensing CNT/cement composite presents sensitive and stable responses to vehicular loadings. In contrast to current traffic flow detection technologies that require separate devices to be installed either in the pavement or over the road, this proposed sensing approach enables the pavement itself to detect traffic flow parameters. Therefore, the proposed sensor is expected to have a long service life with little maintenance.