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This report documents the development of a mechanistic-empirical (M-E) flexible pavement thickness design method for use in Minnesota. The report includes a comprehensive literature review of the state of the practice. The Minnesota Road Research Project (Mn/ROAD) served as the primary source of data, in addition to information from the literature, during the development of the method.
This guide provides guidance to calibrate the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) software to local conditions, policies, and materials. It provides the highway community with a state-of-the-practice tool for the design of new and rehabilitated pavement structures, based on mechanistic-empirical (M-E) principles. The design procedure calculates pavement responses (stresses, strains, and deflections) and uses those responses to compute incremental damage over time. The procedure empirically relates the cumulative damage to observed pavement distresses.
Design related project level pavement management - Economic evaluation of alternative pavement design strategies - Reliability / - Pavement design procedures for new construction or reconstruction : Design requirements - Highway pavement structural design - Low-volume road design / - Pavement design procedures for rehabilitation of existing pavements : Rehabilitation concepts - Guides for field data collection - Rehabilitation methods other than overlay - Rehabilitation methods with overlays / - Mechanistic-empirical design procedures.
It is important to accomodate top-down cracking in the design of asphalt mixtures and pavement structures. This report presents the implementation of the Florida cracking model into a mechanistic-empirical (ME) flexible pavement design framework. Based on the Energy Ratio (ER) concept, a new ME pavement design tool for top-down cracking has been developed. This design tool has been developed into an interactive Window-based software, making it convenient to use for Florida pavement design engineers.
This research developed design tables of new flexible pavement structures for New York State Department of Transportation based on the Mechanistic Empirical Design Guide (MEPDG). The design tables were developed using the MEPDG software for Regions 1, 3, and 7 for Upstate part of New York State and for Regions 8, 10, and 11 for the Downstate part of New York State. The MEPDG software was used to run design cases for combinations of: climate conditions, traffic volume, subgrade soil stiffness (Mr) and pavement structures. The conditions that the MEPDG was used to run were: the road structures classified as Principal Arterial Interstate, design 95%reliability level, 15 and 20 year analysis period. Weight in Motion (WIM) data of Region 7 were used for Region 1 and 2, also WIM data of Region 8 were used for Region 10 and 11. Climatic data specifically for each region were used. The NYSDOT's Comprehensive Pavement Design Manual (CPDM) was initially used to obtain pavement design solutions for Region 7 and 8. The granular subbase materials and thicknesses recommended by CPDM were used but only the asphalt layer thicknesses was varied to include several values higher and lower than the thickness recommended by CPDM. The thickness of asphalt binder and surface layers were kept constant. Only the thickness of the base layer was changed. For each design combination, the design case with thinnest asphalt layer for which the predicted distress was less the performance criteria was selected as the design solution. The design solutions for Regions 7 and 8 were assembled in design tables. The examination of the design tables proved that, in general, Region 7 requires thicker pavement structures than Region 8 for same Annual Average Daily Truck Traffic (AADTT) and Resilient Modulus. In the second phase, the MEPDG was used to run for Region 1, 3, 10, 11. The design solutions were tabulated first to produce the design tables for each design case. Since it was expected that the climate changing has no effects on the design solutions for the regions which belong to the same New York State part, the design tables of Region 7 were compared with the design tables of Regions 1 and 3. In addition, the design tables of Region 8 were compared with those obtained for Regions 10 and 11. The comparisons proved that the change in location within the same part of New York State affects the design solution for the same combination of subgrade soil stiffness and truck traffic volume. In the third phase, the design tables for 80% design reliability were produced for each selected region. The design tables which were developed by this study provide flexibility to the designer to design the new flexible pavement structure. The designer should select the subgrade (Mr), AADTT, design life, and the design reliability; then, the design solution could be obtained directly from the tables.
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.