ISO DIS 13473-1

Description / Abstract: This part of ISO 13473 describes a test method to determine the average depth of pavement surface macrotexture (see Clause 3, Definitions) by measuring the profile of a surface and calculating the texture depth from this profile. The technique is designed to provide an average depth value of only the pavement macrotexture and is considered insensitive to pavement microtexture and unevenness characteristics.

The objective of this part of ISO 13473 is to make available an internationally accepted procedure for determination of pavement surface texture depth which is an alternative to the traditionally used volumetric patch technique (generally using sand or glass beads), giving comparable texture depth values.

Modern profilometers in use are almost entirely of the contactless type (e.g. laser or light slit to mention a few) and this standard is intended for this type. However, a contact-type of profilometer may use applicable parts of this standard.

This ISO 13473- series has been prepared as a result of a need identified when specifying a test surface for vehicle noise measurement (ISO 10844). Macrotexture depth measurements according to this International Standard are not generally adequate for specifying test conditions of vehicle or traffic noise measurements, but have limited applications as a supplement in conjunction with other ways of specifying a surfacing.

This test method is suitable for determining the Mean Profile Depth of a pavement surface. This Mean Profile Depth can be transformed to a quantity which estimates the macrotexture depth according to the volumetric patch method. It is applicable to field tests as well as laboratory tests on pavement samples. When used in conjunction with other physical tests, the macrotexture depth values derived from this test method are applicable to estimation of pavement skid resistance characteristics (see e.g. reference[1] in the Bibliography), estimation of noise characteristics, and assessment of the suitability of paving materials or pavement finishing techniques.

The method, together with other measurements (where applicable), such as porosity or microtexture, can be used to assess the quality of pavements.

This part of ISO 13473 is adapted for pavement texture measurement and is not intended for other applications. Pavement aggregate particle shape, size, and distribution are surface texture features not addressed in this procedure. The method is not meant to provide a complete assessment of pavement surface texture characteristics. In particular, care should be exercised in interpreting the result if the method is applied to porous surfaces or to grooved surfaces (see Annex B).

NOTE Other International Standards dealing with surface profiling methods include for example ISO 468 [2], ISO 1878 [3], ISO 1879 [4], ISO 1880 [5], ISO 3274 [6], ISO 4287 [7][8] and ISO 4288 [9] (see the Bibliography). Although it is not clearly stated in these, they are mainly used for measuring surface finish (microtexture) of metal surfaces and were not intended to be applied to pavements.