The Pavement as a Waveguide: Modeling, System Identification, and Parameter Estimation

This paper presents modeling of wave propagation in pavements from a system identification point of view. First, a model based on the physical structure is derived. Second, experiment design and evaluation are discussed and maximum-likelihood estimators for estimating the model parameters are introduced, assuming an error-in-variables setting. Finally, the proposed methods are applied to measurement data from two experiments under varying environmental conditions. It is found that the proposed methods can be used to estimate the dispersion curves of the considered waveguide and the results can be used for further analysis.