The quality assessment of asphalt pavement in the expressway engineering based on the gray target model with combination weights

The evaluation of pavement performance holds immense significance in the realm of engineering construction. To conduct this assessment, several indices have been carefully selected, namely Road Quality Index $$RQI$$ , Pavement Condition Index $$PCI$$ , Surface Strength Index $$SSI$$ , and British pendulum value $$BPN$$ measured by a pendulum apparatus. Additionally, a gray target model incorporating combination weights is introduced for enhanced analysis. Subsequently, a gray target model tailored specifically for the asphalt pavement of the Weiwu Expressway section is established. By employing the combination weighting method, the weight coefficients for each index are meticulously calculated. Then, utilizing the gray target model, the synthetic target center distances for each sample are determined. Based on these calculations, the quality levels of the asphalt pavement are ultimately ascertained. The proposed model excels in maximizing the exploitation of small-sample data and, to a certain degree, mitigates the issue of information scarcity inherent in small sample sizes. Moreover, it enables a quantitative evaluation of the final quality grade of the asphalt pavement. Consequently, this approach offers a novel perspective and methodology for the future quality assessment of asphalt pavements.