Investigations of Environmental and Traffic Impacts on <i>Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide</i>Predictions

Zaghloul, Sameh; Ayed, Amr; Halim, Amir Abd El; Sauber, Robert W

doi:10.1177/0361198106196700115

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…ated the sensitivity of MEPDG performance predictions to traffic, material, and other design input parameters, but few comprehensive sensitivity studies of the effects of climate on performance predictions have been performed (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Nearly all sensitivity analyses of MEPDG performance predictions to climate inputs to date have simply compared results using one weather station to results using another (15,16). That type of anecdotal approach cannot provide any organized comprehensive insights.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although no formal, documented quality checks have been performed on the climate data distributed with the current version of the MEPDG software, there is a general concern that the information for some of the weather stations may be questionable. Zaghloul et al used the MEPDG to predict the performance of a long-term pavement performance SPS-5 flexible pavement section in New Jersey with climatic input from each of eight OWSs located at distances ranging from 12 to 60 mi from the project site (15). The pavement performance predicted by the MEPDG varied considerably depending on which nearby OWS was used for climate input.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Alternative Source of Climate Data for Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Performance Prediction

Schwartz

Forman

Leininger

2015

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation R

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The AASHTO Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) and accompanying Pavement ME Design software emphasize the influence of climate on pavement performance. Several hundred weather history files from ground-based operating weather stations (OWSs) are provided with the MEPDG software. An alternate climate data source, the Modern Era Retrospective–Analysis for Research and Application (MERRA) product from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is evaluated here. MERRA is a global climate reanalysis procedure that combines computed model fields with ocean-, airborne-, and satellite-based observations. MERRA has the advantage of uniform worldwide spatial coverage at an approximately 0.5° by 0.67° (latitude and longitude) horizontal resolution, continuous hourly time series from 1979 to the present, and a high level of data quality control. Comprehensive statistical comparisons between MERRA climate data and those from various conventional ground-based sources are presented. Comparisons of MEPDG performance predictions with MEPDG OWS and MERRA climate data for 20 locations distributed across the contiguous United States are also summarized. The statistical and performance prediction comparisons support the conclusion that MERRA is an acceptable and advantageous source for climate data that can be used in place of conventional ground-based OWSs.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative Source of Climate Data for Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Performance Prediction

Schwartz

Forman

Leininger

2015

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation R

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Zaghloul et al evaluated the potential impacts of the accuracy of EICM predictions on MEPDGpredicted damage and pavement service life [9]. For the MEPDG implementation/calibration efforts, many states used the MEPDG built-in climatic data files within the state and the ones from neighboring states that are in close proximity [5,10,11,12,13].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Impact of the Egyptian Climatic Conditions on Flexible Pavement Performance

Elshaeb¹,

El-Badawy²,

Shawaly³

2014

AJCEA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pavements are subject to environmental conditions, which affect the performance of both flexible and rigid pavements. The current flexible pavement design system in Egypt relies primarily on the 1993 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Design Guide. The method has many limitations. One of the serious limitations is the empirical drainage layer coefficients. These coefficients in addition to the seasonal variation of the roadbed resilient modulus are the only environmental consideration in the method. The newly AASHTO released production version of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) which is called AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design was developed to overcome the limitations inherent in the AASHTO 1993 method. Unlike the AASHTO 1993 method, Pavement ME Design method considers the variation in moisture and temperature on the mechanical properties of the pavement layers. Thus, the main objective of this study was to develop the climatic data to facilitate the implementation of Pavement ME Design in Egypt and study its influence on the pavement performance. Pavement ME required climatic data which are the hourly air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, sunshine and relative humidity were collected for 16 climatic locations distributed all over Egypt for four years. The quality of the data was checked and verified and the data was transformed to the format required by the software. A typical flexible pavement section was simulated using the ME design at the 16 different climatic locations and the performance predicted using the ME Design was analyzed. The performance indicators predicted by Pavement ME are rutting, alligator fatigue cracking, longitudinal cracking, thermal cracking, and International Roughness Index (IRI). Results showed that the pavement performance is significantly affected by the change in the climatic data. As expected, for Egypt, the most significant influence was on the predicted rutting of the Asphalt layer.

show abstract

“…MEPDG sensitivity studies for flexible pavements began appearing in the literature immediately after the initial release of the MEPDG in 2004 (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23). However, MEPDG sensitivity studies have been limited in scope, approach, and findings.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Sensitivity Analysis of Mechanistic–Empirical Performance Predictions for Flexible Pavements

Schwartz

Ceylan

et al. 2013

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation R

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The new AASHTO Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) provides pavement analysis and performance predictions for various feasible design scenarios. The MEPDG performance predictions for the anticipated climatic and traffic conditions depends on the values of the input parameters that characterize the pavement materials, layers, design features, and condition. This paper focuses on comprehensive global sensitivity analyses of flexible pavement performance predictions to MEPDG design inputs under five climatic conditions and three traffic levels. Design inputs evaluated in the analyses include traffic volume, layer thicknesses, material properties, and groundwater depth. Correlations between design inputs were considered as appropriate. The global sensitivity analysis varied all inputs simultaneously across the problem domain for each of the 15 base cases (five climates and three traffic levels). Two response surface modeling approaches-multivariate linear regressions and artificial neural networks-were developed for modeling the analysis results for evaluation of MEPDG input sensitivities across the problem domain. The response surface modeling approaches based on artificial neural networks were particularly effective in providing robust and accurate representations of the complex relationships between MEPDG inputs and distress outputs. The design limit normalized sensitivity index adopted in the study provided a practical interpretation of sensitivity by relating a given percentage change in an MEPDG input to the corresponding percentage change in predicted distress relative to its design limit value. The design inputs most consistently in the highest sensitivity categories across all distresses were the hot-mix asphalt dynamic modulus master curve, hot-mix asphalt thickness, surface shortwave absorptivity, and Poisson's ratio of hot-mix asphalt. Longitudinal and alligator fatigue cracking were also very sensitive to granular base thickness and resilient modulus and subgrade resilient modulus.

show abstract

Investigations of Environmental and Traffic Impacts on Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design GuidePredictions

Cited by 16 publications

References 2 publications

Alternative Source of Climate Data for Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Performance Prediction

Alternative Source of Climate Data for Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Performance Prediction

Development and Impact of the Egyptian Climatic Conditions on Flexible Pavement Performance

Global Sensitivity Analysis of Mechanistic–Empirical Performance Predictions for Flexible Pavements

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About