Investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technology

IntroductionRoad hazards and some traffic accidents are often caused by damage of the performance of the pavement due to cracking of asphalt concrete.MethodsA simulation test was designed to investigate asphalt pavement cracking under different temperature conditions (15°C, 0°C, −5°C, −15°C) with a...

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Main Authors: Jie Jiang, Kui Xu, Yanbin Song, Ling Gao, Jinzhu Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2025-04-01
Series:Frontiers in Built Environment
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2025.1580379/full
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author Jie Jiang
Jie Jiang
Kui Xu
Yanbin Song
Ling Gao
Jinzhu Zhang
author_facet Jie Jiang
Jie Jiang
Kui Xu
Yanbin Song
Ling Gao
Jinzhu Zhang
author_sort Jie Jiang
collection DOAJ
description IntroductionRoad hazards and some traffic accidents are often caused by damage of the performance of the pavement due to cracking of asphalt concrete.MethodsA simulation test was designed to investigate asphalt pavement cracking under different temperature conditions (15°C, 0°C, −5°C, −15°C) with a fixed traffic load strip. Using Gaussian filtering to eliminate texture noise (5 × 5 convolution kernels), extracting continuous crack contours through Canny operator (dual threshold 0.7/0.3), and combining with improved Otsu algorithm (32 × 32 block dynamic threshold) to achieve accurate segmentation under complex lighting conditions; Innovatively introducing a dual parameter system of fractal dimension (box dimension method) and crack rate (crack area ratio) to quantitatively characterize the complexity of crack morphology and degree of damage.ResultsAnd proposed using two crack characteristic parameters, fractal dimension and crack rate, to describe the extension characteristics of cracks. The results indicate that the road surface is more prone to cracking in negative zero temperature environments, with the number and rate of cracks generated at −15°C being much higher than the other three low-temperature environments. Compared to the 15°C environment, the crack rate increased by 18.26%.DiscussionIt has been confirmed that the occurrence and propagation of cracks will be exacerbated in low-temperature environments. The research results provide a theoretical basis and reference significance for the study of pavement crack resistance in cold regions.
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publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
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series Frontiers in Built Environment
spelling doaj-art-49a62a5da0124e1ba61a94e3ada4c1dd2025-08-20T02:08:24ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Built Environment2297-33622025-04-011110.3389/fbuil.2025.15803791580379Investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technologyJie Jiang0Jie Jiang1Kui Xu2Yanbin Song3Ling Gao4Jinzhu Zhang5Zhonglian Runshi Xinjiang Coal Industry Company Limited, Changji, Xinjiang, ChinaZhengzhou Bole Information Technology Company Limited, Zhengzhou, Henan, ChinaZhonglian Runshi Xinjiang Coal Industry Company Limited, Changji, Xinjiang, ChinaZhonglian Runshi Xinjiang Coal Industry Company Limited, Changji, Xinjiang, ChinaZhonglian Runshi Xinjiang Coal Industry Company Limited, Changji, Xinjiang, ChinaZhonglian Runshi Xinjiang Coal Industry Company Limited, Changji, Xinjiang, ChinaIntroductionRoad hazards and some traffic accidents are often caused by damage of the performance of the pavement due to cracking of asphalt concrete.MethodsA simulation test was designed to investigate asphalt pavement cracking under different temperature conditions (15°C, 0°C, −5°C, −15°C) with a fixed traffic load strip. Using Gaussian filtering to eliminate texture noise (5 × 5 convolution kernels), extracting continuous crack contours through Canny operator (dual threshold 0.7/0.3), and combining with improved Otsu algorithm (32 × 32 block dynamic threshold) to achieve accurate segmentation under complex lighting conditions; Innovatively introducing a dual parameter system of fractal dimension (box dimension method) and crack rate (crack area ratio) to quantitatively characterize the complexity of crack morphology and degree of damage.ResultsAnd proposed using two crack characteristic parameters, fractal dimension and crack rate, to describe the extension characteristics of cracks. The results indicate that the road surface is more prone to cracking in negative zero temperature environments, with the number and rate of cracks generated at −15°C being much higher than the other three low-temperature environments. Compared to the 15°C environment, the crack rate increased by 18.26%.DiscussionIt has been confirmed that the occurrence and propagation of cracks will be exacerbated in low-temperature environments. The research results provide a theoretical basis and reference significance for the study of pavement crack resistance in cold regions.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2025.1580379/fullasphalt concretehighway pavementcrackingimage processingfractal
spellingShingle Jie Jiang
Jie Jiang
Kui Xu
Yanbin Song
Ling Gao
Jinzhu Zhang
Investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technology
Frontiers in Built Environment
asphalt concrete
highway pavement
cracking
image processing
fractal
title Investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technology
title_full Investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technology
title_fullStr Investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technology
title_full_unstemmed Investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technology
title_short Investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technology
title_sort investigation of cracking behavior in asphalt pavement using digital image processing technology
topic asphalt concrete
highway pavement
cracking
image processing
fractal
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2025.1580379/full
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AT yanbinsong investigationofcrackingbehaviorinasphaltpavementusingdigitalimageprocessingtechnology
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