Nuclear

Nuclear Density Gauges:Becauseofthedisadvantagesofcoresampling,many

agencieshaveturnedtonucleargaugetestingastheirprimarymeansofdensity
measurement.
Nucleargaugesaremuchfasterthancoresamplingandcandeterminedensityata
givenlocationwithinminutes.Speedmakesthedevicessuitableforacceptancetesting
(targetdensity)andtosomeextentforuseinacontractorsprocesscontrol(design
specifications).Thedensitycanbemeasuredwhilethepavementisstillhotenoughto
permitadditionalcompacting,ifnecessary.
Thedisadvantageofnucleargaugesisthattheymeasuredensityindirectly.Thatis,the
testoutputisaradiationcountthatmustbereferencedtoapreviouslyestablished
calibrationcurveofcountversusdensity.Therefore,nucleardensitygaugesrequire
calibrationatthejobsitesotheyarecorrelatedwithcoredensitiestheywillbe
measuring.
Nucleargaugesoperatebyasimpleconceptknownasbackscattergauging.Gamma
raysareemittedbyaradioisotopesourcecontainedinthegaugebody.Theradiation
travelsoutfromthesourceandpenetratesthepavement,wheregammaraysare
scatteredand/orabsorbed.Acounterinthedeviceestablishedthenumberofgamma
raysthatreturn.Thereturningraysareproportionaltothedensity.

Severalcharacteristicsofthebackscattergaugearecritical.First,agaugeismore
sensitivetothematerialnearestthesurfacethantomaterialfartherdown.Typically,80%
to95%ofthegaugecountcomesfromthetop2inches;littlecomesfrombelow4
inches.Thisfeatureisnotimportantinfulldepth,multi-layerasphaltpavement
construction,butISimportantinthin(1to2inches)overlayconstruction.Although
nucleargaugesoperatinginthebackscattermodegetmostoftheircountfromthetop2
inches,theystillget5%to20%fromthe2to4inchrange.Asaresult,thedensityofthe
underlyingmaterialwillsignificantlyaffectthereadingfromathinoverlay.

Thesecondimportantcharacteristicisthegaugessensitivitytosurfaceroughness.Ona
coarse-texturedmat,thegaugebodyrestsonthehighpointsofthesurfaceand,
therefore,canincludeconsiderableairspaceinthevolumebeingmeasured.Ifthe
surfaceroughnessofagivenpavementwereequivalenttouniform0.05inchairgap
underthegauge,thereadingwouldbereducedbyabout4lbs/cuft.Gaugeusers
frequentlycompensateforroughsurfacesbyfillingthetexturewithfinesand.

Thethirdcharacteristicisthegaugessensitivitytothechemicalcompositionofthe
asphaltmixturethatis,theaggregatecomposition.Giventwopavementsofthesame
density,onewithasiliceousaggregateandtheotheracalcareousaggregate,a
backscattergaugecouldshowasmuchasa5lbs/cuftdifferencebetweenthedisplayed
densityvalues.
Finally,aswithanyothertestmethod,theusermustbeconcernedwithprecisionhow
reputableareagaugesreadingsatagivenlocation.Fornucleargauges,precisionis
betterwhenthereturninggammaraysarecountedforalongerperiodoftime.Typically,a
one-minutecountwouldhaveaprecisionof+/-0.5lbs/cuft.Afour-minutecountwould
beaccurateto+/-0.25lbs/cuft.