Abstract:An accurate characterization of size and shape properties of geomaterials is essential for assessing construction quality and performance trends of roads, railways and airfields, as built transportation infrastructure. The composition and packing, layer stiffness, and load response are all influenced by the morphological characteristics of granular soils and aggregates. A convenient and affordable system for acquiring aggregate morphology information from stockpiles and constructed layers in the field has been developed at the University of Illinois as an innovative 3D imaging approach, whereby engineers can perform inspection by taking high resolution videos/images with mobile devices such as smartphone cameras and automated scanning vehicles. Such a ballast scanning vehicle (BSV) recently developed utilizes a deep learning-based pipeline for image segmentation to evaluate task-specific metrics such as coarse aggregate gradation, Fouling Index (FI), and continuous railroad track FI depth profiles. Based on the field results, the BSV is capable of providing accurate and near real-time evaluation of in-service ballast conditions, serve as a robust means for inspecting long sections of track, and can be used to investigate persistent trouble-spots related to track performance. The computer vision based imaging approach also leverages Structure-from-Motion (SfM) techniques to reconstruct the stockpile surfaces as well as depth-profile aggregate layers as 3D spatial data, i.e. point cloud, and uses a 3D segmentation algorithm to separate and extract individual aggregates from the reconstructed stockpile. The preliminary results to be presented demonstrate the future potential of using 3D aggregate size and shape information for onsite Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) tasks.

Biographical Sketch:

Dr. Erol Tutumluer is Abel Bliss Professor specializing in Transportation Geotechnics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Tutumluer has research interests and expertise in characterization of highway/ airfield pavement and railroad track geomaterials, geosynthetics, advanced imaging techniques and applications of artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques to transportation infrastructure, structural health monitoring of transportation facilities using sensors, sustainable use of foundation geomaterials and construction practices for transportation infrastructure, discrete element analysis of ballast, and dynamic response measurement and analyses of track systems. Professor Tutumluer has served as an investigator on over 120 research projects, graduated 25 PhD and 46 MS students, and authored/co-authored over 380 peer reviewed publications from his research projects. Dr. Tutumluer is a Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Transportation Geotechnics Elsevier journal and the immediate past Chair of the ISSMGE Technical Committee 202 on Transportation Geotechnics. As a Council Member (2020-2026) of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), Dr. Tutumluer currently serves as Chair of the Technical Committee on Stabilization. He is an Executive Board Member of the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) Transportation Infrastructure Group. Dr. Tutumluer was the 2000 recipient of the TRB’s Fred Burgraff award for Excellence in Transportation Research. He was selected and honored with Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) Scholar Award by China Ministry of Education in 2016. Dr. Tutumluer was the Chair of the highly successful 8th International Symposium on Environmental Vibrations and Transportation Geodynamics organized by Central South University in Changsha in 2018. He received Qiushi Distinguished Professor title bestowed upon him by Zhejiang University and delivered the Zeng Guoxi honor lecture in China in 2019. Dr. Tutumluer is the 2020 recipient of the ASCE T&DI James Laurie Prize in recognition of his career accomplishments for promoting Transportation Geotechnics field and the 2021 recipient of ASCE Geo-Institute’s Carl L. Monismith Lecture Award. In 2023, Dr. Tutumluer received an IGS Award in recognition of his significant contributions towards the use of geosynthetics in roadways, railways, and airfields. Dr. Tutumluer is scheduled to deliver ASCE T&DI’s Francis Turner and ISSMGE Proctor Lectures in 2024.