Download or read book Quantifying the Effects of Climate Change on Pavement Performance Prediction Using AASHTOWoware Pavement ME Design written by Md Shahjalal Chowdhury and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Climate change is one of the most concerning global issues and has the potential to influence every aspect of human life. Like different components of society, it can impose significant adverse impacts on pavement infrastructure. Although several research efforts have focused on studying the effects of climate change on natural and built systems, its impact on pavement performance has not been studied as extensively. The primary objectives of this thesis research was to quantify the effect of temperature changes on flexible pavement response and performance prediction using the AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design (PMED), and quantify the effects of Local Calibration Factors (LCFs) used by different state highway agencies in the United States on predicted pavement performance. Particular emphasis was given to LCF values used by the Idaho Transportation Department. The climatic data, as well as LCFs corresponding to several different states, were used to identify how different LCF values affect pavement performance prediction. The effects of atmospheric temperature changes on pavement temperature and Asphalt Concrete (AC) layer modulus were studied by analyzing the intermediate files generated by PMED. Finally, the impact of temperature change on AC dynamic modulus (E*) was also analyzed to link the PMED-predicted distresses with asphalt mix properties. Historical climatic data was obtained from the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) database. Projected data considered to simulate the temperature changes in the future were generated by adopting two different approaches: (1) Manual alteration of historical temperature distribution data to represent scenarios with increased mean and standard deviation values; and (2) Use of temperature data projected by established Global Climate Models (GCM). All different climatic scenarios were used in PMED along with a standard pavement section, and the distresses predicted over the design life of the pavement were compared. Simulation results showed consistent increase in Total Pavement rutting and AC rutting with increasing air temperatures. The effect of temperature increase on AC thermal cracking predicted by PMED demonstrated inconsistent trends. In contrast, the projected temperature increase had no significant effect on bottom-up fatigue cracking for the chosen study locations. It was found that the impact of changed air temperatures can be different for pavement sections constructed in different geographic locations. Moreover, the analysis confirmed that the Local Calibration Factors (LCFs) established by different state highway agencies played a major role in governing the effect of future temperature increase on predicted pavement performance. Through an extensive stud."--Boise State University ScholarWorks.

Download or read book Investigation of AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design DARWin ME Performance Prediction Models for Iowa Pavement Analysis and Design written by Halil Ceylan and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) was developed under National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 1-37A as a novel mechanistic-empirical procedure for the analysis and design of pavements. The MEPDG was subsequently supported by AASHTO's DARWin-ME and most recently marketed as AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design software as of February 2013. Although the core design process and computational engine have remained the same over the years, some enhancements to the pavement performance prediction models have been implemented along with other documented changes as the MEPDG transitioned to AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design software. Preliminary studies were carried out to determine possible differences between AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design, MEPDG (version 1.1), and DARWin-ME (version 1.1) performance predictions for new jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP), new hot mix asphalt (HMA), and HMA over JPCP systems. Differences were indeed observed between the pavement performance predictions produced by these different software versions. Further investigation was needed to verify these differences and to evaluate whether identified local calibration factors from the latest MEPDG (version 1.1) were acceptable for use with the latest version (version 2.1.24) of AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design at the time this research was conducted. Therefore, the primary objective of this research was to examine AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design performance predictions using previously identified MEPDG calibration factors (through InTrans Project 11-401) and, if needed, refine the local calibration coefficients of AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design pavement performance predictions for Iowa pavement systems using linear and nonlinear optimization procedures. A total of 130 representative sections across Iowa consisting of JPCP, new HMA, and HMA over JPCP sections were used. The local calibration results of AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design are presented and compared with national and locally calibrated MEPDG models.

Download or read book Using AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design Tools to Evaluate Flood Impact on Concrete Pavement Performance written by Oluremi Oyediji and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The resilience of concrete pavement to flood impact has remained positive based on previous experimental investigations and overtime recommended as a pre-flood adaptation strategy in countries such as Australia and the United States. However, no study on concrete pavement flood impact performance has been conducted in Canada until now. Flood impact assessment under Canadian climate conditions was therefore conducted on typical concrete pavement designs common to the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. In the Ontario study, representative arterial and collector pavement designs were modelled, and cycles of flood hazards simulated on these pavements to evaluate changes in performance under climate change scenarios using the AASHTO Pavement ME Design (PMED) program. Percentage damage was estimated by observing changes in International Roughness Index (IRI) prediction values under flood and no-flood conditions. Results indicate a slight reduction in pavement performance across road classes, and minimal increases in damage as event cycles increased. Estimated flood damage on pavement performance was more pronounced in collector (non-dowelled) pavements than arterial (dowelled) pavements. The major distress indicator which contributed to damage was faulting, being that it increased across event cycles irrespective of return periods. In the Manitoba case study, a total of 27 pavement design classes was developed based on a matrix of representative traffic levels, subgrade conditions and slab thicknesses common to the province. Projected climate-induced flood hazards under climate change scenarios were further modelled on the design classes to evaluate flood impact on concrete pavement performance. Results also indicated diminutive flood damage and loss of life in all of the concrete pavement classes. Increases in flood cycles induced no further damage or loss in pavement performance. In all of the pavement classes considered, there was no positive change or damage to faulting and fatigue cracking under flood conditions. The IRI parameter was the only parameter influenced by inundation, which could further suggest the possible build-up of permanent moisture-induced warping. The observed low flood damage ratios further reiterates the resilience and adaptive capacity of the Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP) to withstand extreme precipitation or flood conditions. A local calibration of the AASHTOWare Pavement ME Transverse Cracking Transfer Function was successfully completed to fit observed concrete pavement performance in Ontario. As bias existed in cracking predictions using default AASHTOWare Pavement ME cracking calibration coefficients, a need for local calibration was pertinent to provide better predictions of cracking performance under Ontario conditions. This achievement is pivotal to the delivery of reliable and economical pavement design and construction projects across the province. The derived local calibration factors have been accepted and published by the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) for industry use.

Download or read book Quantifying the Influence of Geosynthetics on Pavement Performance written by and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Consideration of Preservation in Pavement Design and Analysis Procedures written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 810: Consideration of Preservation in Pavement Design and Analysis Procedures explores the effects of preservation on pavement performance and service life and describes three different approaches for considering these effects in pavement design and analysis procedures. The report may serve as a basis for developing procedures for incorporating preservation in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide: A Manual of Practice (MEPDG) and the AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design software. Initially, the scope of this project intended to develop procedures for incorporating pavement preservation treatments into the MEPDG design analysis process that would become part of the MEPDG Manual of Practice. However, it was determined that sufficient data were not available to support the development of such procedures. Appendices A through I are available online only." --

Download or read book The Use of Long Term Pavement Performance Data for Quantifying the Relative Effects of Structural and Environmental Factors on the Response and Performance of New Flexible Pavements written by Syed Waqar Haider and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 732 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Quantification of Moisture Related Damage in Flexible and Rigid Pavements and Incorporation of Pavement Preservation Treatments in Aashtoware Pavement Me Design and Analysis written by Muhammad Munum Masud and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Re calibration of Rigid Pavement Performance Models and Development of Traffic Inputs for Pavement me Design in Michigan written by Gopi Krishna Musunuru and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (AASHTOWARE Pavement-ME) incorporates mechanistic models to estimate stresses, strains, and deformations in pavement layers using site-specific climatic, material, and traffic characteristics. These structural responses are used to predict pavement performance using empirical models (i.e., transfer functions). The transfer functions need to be calibrated to improve the accuracy of the performance predictions, reflecting the unique field conditions and design practices. The existing local calibrations of the performance models were performed by using version 2.0 of the Pavement-ME software. However, AASHTO has released versions 2.2 and 2.3 of the software since the completion of the last study. In the revised versions of the software, several bugs were fixed.Consequently, some performance models were modified in the newer software versions. As a result, the concrete pavement IRI predictions and the resulting PCC slab thicknesses have been impacted. The performance predictions varied significantly from the observed structural and function distresses, and hence, the performance models were recalibrated to enhance the confidence in pavement designs. Linear and nonlinear mixed-effects models were used for calibration to account for the non-independence among the data measured on the same sections over time. Also, climate data, material properties, and design parameters were used to develop a model for predicting permanent curl for each location to address some limitations of the Pavement-ME. This model can be used at the design stage to estimate permanent curl for a given location in Michigan.Pavement-ME also requires specific types of traffic data to design new or rehabilitated pavement structures. The traffic inputs include monthly adjustment factors (MAF), hourly distribution factors (HDF), vehicle class distributions (VCD), axle groups per vehicle (AGPV), and axle load distributions for different axle configurations. During the last seven years, new traffic data were collected, which reflect the recent economic growth, additional, and downgraded WIM sites. Hence it was appropriate to re-evaluate the current traffic inputs and incorporate any changes. Weight and classification data were obtained from 41 Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) sites located throughout the State of Michigan to develop Level 1 (site-specific) traffic inputs. Cluster analyses were conducted to group sites for the development of Level 2A inputs. Classification models such as decision trees, random forests, and Naive Bayes classifier were developed to assign a new site to these clusters; however, this proved difficult. An alternative simplified method to develop Level 2B inputs by grouping sites with similar attributes was also adopted. The optimal set of attributes for developing these Level 2B inputs were identified by using an algorithm developed in this study. The effects of the developed hierarchical traffic inputs on the predicted performance of rigid and flexible pavements were investigated using the Pavement-ME. Based on the statistical and practical significance of the life differences, appropriate levels were established for each traffic input. The methodology for developing traffic inputs is intuitive and practical for future updates. Also, there is a need to identify the change in traffic patterns to update the traffic inputs so that the pavement sections would not be overdesigned or under-designed. Models were developed where the short-term counts from the PTR sites can be used as inputs to check if the new traffic patterns cause any substantial differences in design life predictions.

Download or read book The Implications of Climate Change on Pavement Performance and Design written by By Qiang Li and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pavements are designed based on historic climatic patterns, reflecting local climate and incorporating assumptions about a reasonable range of temperatures and precipitation levels. Given anticipated climate changes and the inherent uncertainty associated with such changes, a pavement could be subjected to very different climatic conditions over the design life and might be inadequate to withstand future climate forces that impose stresses beyond environmental factors currently considered in the design process. This research explores the impacts of potential climate change and its uncertainty on pavement performance and therefore pavement design. Two tools are integrated to simulate pavement conditions over a variety of scenarios. The first tool, MAGICC/SCENGEN (Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse-gas Induced Climate Change: A regional Climate Scenario Generator), provides estimates of the magnitude of potential climate change and its uncertainty. The second tool, the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) software analyzes the deterioration of pavement performance. Three important questions are addressed: (1) How does pavement performance deteriorate differently with climate change and its uncertainty? (2) What is the risk if climate change and its uncertainty are not considered in pavement design? and (3) How do pavement designers respond and incorporate this change into pavement design process? This research develops a framework to incorporate climate change effects into the mechanistic-empirical based pavement design. Three test sites in the North Eastern United States are studied and the framework is applied. It demonstrates that the framework is a robust and effective way to integrate climate change into pavement design as an adaptation strategy.

Download or read book Implementation of the AASHTO Mechanistic empirical Pavement Design Guide and Software written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction -- Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide and AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design (TM) Software Overview -- Survey of Agency Pavement Design Practices -- Common Elements of Agency Implementation Plans -- Case Examples of Agency Implementation -- Conclusions.

Download or read book Implementation of the AASHTO Mechanistic Empirical Design Guide AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design for Pavement Rehabilitation written by Shuvo Islam and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design (PMED) is a novel design method for new and rehabilitated pavement designs based on mechanistic-empirical design principles. The design process includes several empirical models calibrated with pavement performance data from pavement sections throughout the United States. Improved accuracy of the design process requires that the models be calibrated to local conditions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to implement the AASHTOWare PMED software for rehabilitated pavement design by performing local calibration for state-managed roads in Kansas, New Jersey, and Maine. Transfer functions for translating mechanistic pavement responses into visible distresses embedded in the AASHTOWare PMED software were locally calibrated to eliminate bias and reduce the standard error for rehabilitated pavements in Kansas and New York. Calibration was performed using version 2.5 and then verified with version 2.6.2.2, which was released in September 2022. Rehabilitated pavement sections included asphalt concrete (AC) over AC in Kansas and the New England region and jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) sections in Kansas. Because the PMED software requires periodic recalibration of the prediction models to account for improvements in the models, changes in agency design and construction strategies, and updates in performance data, this study also developed an automated technique for calibrating the AASHTOWare PMED software performance models. This automated methodology incorporated robust sampling techniques to verify calibrated PMED models. In addition, statistical equivalence testing was incorporated to ensure PMED-predicted performance results tended to agree with the in-situ data. A comparison of results for the AASHTOWare PMED versions 2.5 and 2.6.2.2 showed that most predicted distress values in Kansas remained the same, except for the predicted AC total fatigue cracking, specifically asphalt bottom-up fatigue cracking. For both distress types, slightly higher values were obtained with version 2.6.2.2. Results of three candidate crack tests showed that IDEAL-CT test results can be used as cracking-resistance criterion for mixtures in Kansas. The rehabilitation models were also successfully calibrated for the New England region.

Download or read book Mechanistic empirical Pavement Design Guide written by American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and published by AASHTO. This book was released on 2008 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Implementation of AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design Software for Pavement Rehabilitation written by Shuvo Islam and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1993 version of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) design guide has been the primary pavement design tool for state highway agencies in the United States. Recently, a mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG) has been developed for new and rehabilitated pavement design. MEPDG approaches have been incorporated into a proprietary design software (commonly known as AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design (PMED)) for new and rehabilitated pavement designs. The main objective of this study was to facilitate implementation of this AASHTOWare PMED software for rehabilitated pavement design in Kansas. As part of this implementation, transfer functions for translating mechanistic pavement responses into visible distresses embedded in the AASHTOWare PMED software were locally calibrated to eliminate bias and reduce standard error for rehabilitated pavements in Kansas. Rehabilitated pavement sections included asphalt concrete (AC) over AC and jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) sections. The PMED software requires periodic recalibration of the prediction models to account for improvements in the PMED models, changes in agency design and construction strategies, and updates in performance data. Thus, another objective of this study was to develop an automated technique for calibrating the AASHTOWare PMED software performance models. The automated methodology developed in this study incorporated robust sampling techniques to verify calibrated PMED models. In addition, a statistical equivalence testing approach was incorporated to ensure PMED-predicted performance results tend to agree with the in-situ data.

Download or read book Evaluation of Climatic Effects on Pavement Performance Using Mepdg written by Jhuma Saha and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade, the design of both flexible and rigid pavements has been fundamentally evolving. This evolution includes the replacement of empirical design procedures, mainly based on different editions of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Design Guide with mechanistic-based procedures, such as the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). This book includes my master thesis that I carried out at University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. This book attempts to explore the implementation of the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) in Canada. The content of this book can be categorized into two parts. First, it explores the effects of climate on pavement performance using the MEPDG. Second, it compares the MEPDG with AASHTO - 1993 based Alberta Transportation Pavement Design (ATPD) method. This book presents three novel methods to evaluate the quality of the climatic data files used for the MEPDG. This book also demonstrates the sensitivity of climatic factors on pavement performance. A typical flexible pavement section and climatic data files of different Canadian weather stations were used in this study.

Download or read book Evaluation of Long term Pavement Performance LTTP Climatic Data for Use in Mechanistic empirical Pavement Design Guide MEPDG Calibration and Other Pavement Analysis written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improvements in the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Program's climate data are needed to support current and future research into climate effects on pavement materials, design, and performance. The calibration and enhancement of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) is just one example of these emerging needs. A newly emerging climate data source, the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its own in-house modeling needs, provides continuous hourly weather data starting in 1979 on a relatively fine-grained uniform grid. MERRA is based on a reanalysis model that combines computed model fields (e.g., atmospheric temperatures) with ground-, ocean-, atmospheric-, and satellite-based observations that are distributed irregularly in space and time. MERRA data are available at an hourly temporal resolution and 0.5 degrees latitude by 0.67 degrees longitude (approximately 31.1 by 37.30 mi at mid-latitudes) spatial resolution over the entire globe. MERRA data were compared against the best available ground-based observations both statistically and in terms of effects on pavement performance as predicted using the MEPDG. These analyses included a systematic quantitative evaluation of the sensitivity of MEPDG performance predictions to variations in fundamental climate parameters. More extensive analysis of MERRA data included additional statistical analysis comparing operating weather station (OWS) and MERRA data, evaluation of the correctness of MEPDG surface shortwave radiation (SSR) calculations and comparison of MEPDG pavement performance predictions using OWS and MERRA climate data for more sections. The principal conclusion from these evaluations was that the MERRA climate data were as good and in many cases substantially better than equivalent ground-based OWS data. Given these many benefits and very few if any significant limitations, MERRA is strongly recommended as the new future source for climate data in LTPP. Recommendations are provided for incorporating hourly MERRA data into the LTPP database.

Download or read book Flexible Pavement Design written by Ashraf Ayman Aguib and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: The new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) provides a state- of-the-art and practice pavement design procedure that eradicates the AASHTO 1993 empirical design procedure deficiencies. Huge advancements with respect to traffic input, material characterization and environmental impact are incorporated in the MEPDG. The AASHTO 1993 design procedure is based on empirical equations derived from the AASHO Road Test conducted in the late 1950's in a test track in Ottawa, Illinois. The test provided very useful information for the design of pavement at that time. However, with the present advancement in materials and dramatic increase in traffic volumes, this empirical design procedure started to show massive drawbacks. The MEPDG is a more comprehensive design procedure that incorporates sophisticated models for pavement response calculation, material properties variations with respect to environmental conditions and pavement performance predictions. The mechanistic part of the design procedure is the pavement response calculation and the empirical part of the method is the pavement performance prediction. Incorporating these models allows the MEPDG of producing pavement design sections that are cost-effective and perform better than those designed using the AASHTO 1993 design procedure for a given life span. With the initial introduction of the MEPDG in 2004, almost every State Highway Agency (SHA) in the United States and several road authorities around the world exerted efforts to understand and plan to implement the MEPDG according to their own local conditions. It was hence found necessary to explore the new design procedure according to Egyptian local conditions. The objectives of the research is to prepare a body of accurate and readily usable environmental data for Egypt for MEPDG input, compare the effectiveness of both design methods and assess the sensitivity of MEPDG predicted performance with respect to variations in inputs. Weather data files for major Egyptian cities were extracted from available data sources and prepared for direct input in the MEPDG. The preparation of data was done using a computer application especially developed in this research program to comprehensively and rationally complete this task. A comparative study was then done between the two design methods. Five pavement sections were designed using the AASHTO 1993 design procedure and then evaluated using the MEPDG for three traffic levels. These five sections were chosen to best represent the majority of Egypt. A sensitivity analysis was then conducted to investigate the predicted behavior of fatigue cracking and rutting with respect to variations in environmental conditions, traffic levels, AC layer thickness and properties, granular base (GB) layer thickness and subgrade strength. Comparing both design methods revealed that pavements designed under the AASHTO 1993 do not perform equally at the end of their design life. Terminal Present Serviceability Index (PSI) values are different for different traffic levels and locations. Predicted fatigue cracking and rutting showed a similar trend to terminal PSI values. The AASHTO 1993 was also found to over-estimate pavement layers thicknesses. Predicted fatigue cracking showed high sensitivity to design inputs under the scope of the study. Environmental conditions and traffic loading were also found to be the most influential input parameters on the selected pavement performance indices. Unexpected results for predicted rutting lead to further investigation and MEDPG rutting prediction model was evaluated with respect to an Egyptian rutting prediction model. Rutting prediction model adopted by MEPDG produced lower values for permanent strain compare to the Egyptian rutting model and further calibration for the MEPDG rutting prediction model was found necessary.

Download or read book Using Multi objective Optimization to Enhance Calibration of Performance Models in the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide written by Nima Kargah-Ostadi and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research study devised two scenarios for application of multi-objective optimization to enhance calibration of performance models in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) AASHTOWare® Pavement ME Design software.(1) In the primary scenario, mean and standard deviation of prediction error are simultaneously minimized to increase accuracy and precision at the same time. In the second scenario, model prediction error on data from Federal Highway Administration’s Long-Term Pavement Performance test sections and error on available accelerated pavement testing data are treated as independent objective functions to be minimized simultaneously. The multi-objective optimization results in a final pool of tradeoff solutions, where none of the viable sets of calibration factors are eliminated prematurely. Exploring the final front results in more reasonable calibration coefficients that could not be identified using single-objective approaches. This report demonstrates the application of engineering judgment and qualitative criteria to select reasonable calibration coefficients from the final pool of solutions that result from the multi-objective optimization. More reasonable calibration factors result in a more justifiable pavement design considering multiple aspects of pavement performance. This investigation revealed that simply evaluating the bias and standard error is not adequate for a comprehensive evaluation of performance prediction models.