Title: Validation of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide Using PMS Data
Abstract: The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (M-E PDG) developed under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 1-37A integrates structural loading due to traffic with the change in material properties due to environmental effects to determine the mechanistic properties of pavement materials. These mechanistic properties are then translated to expected pavement performance through a series of transfer functions (calibration models) to estimate key pavement condition indicators over the life of the pavement. One of the key recommendations of the NCHRP study was that local calibration data should be used to validate and ‘fine tune’ the national models that were calibrated based on long term pavement performance data from the United States and Canada. Calibration and verification of the national models to reflect local conditions can be intimidating because of the large amount of material test and performance data that is required for a full calibration. However, many agencies already have a significant amount of relevant data collected as a part of their pavement management systems (PMS) which can be used to assist in validating the national models. This paper outlines the procedure used to validate the national mechanistic-empirical pavement performance models for high traffic volume freeways in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Details of the pavement construction history, pavement materials, traffic, climate, and historic pavement performance monitoring data were extracted from the pavement management system and used to evaluate the M-E PDG national models and their applicability for local conditions. The results of the comparison between the historic pavement performance data and the modelled performance indicated good correlation for high volume freeways in Ontario. The variation in predicted versus actually observed distress was somewhat variable, but this can be attributed to the increase in the number of assumptions necessary to use the available PMS data. The technique described in this paper was used successfully and can be implemented for many agencies with good quality, historic pavement performance and construction history data.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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