Calibration and validation of asphalt concrete pavements distress models for 2002 Design Guide

The pavement structural response and the distress prediction models (sometimes referred to as transfer functions) represent the backbone of the analysis used in the 2002 Design Guide. The development, calibration and validation of asphalt pavement distress prediction models was carried out to facilitate the implementation, acceptance, and adoption of the design procedure and to establish confidence in the entire procedure.; Distress models considered for calibration and validation in this dissertation include: rutting and fatigue cracking. Rutting subsystems were developed for asphaltic layers, unbound base/subbase and subgrade layers, as well as total rut depth. Fatigue cracking models were developed for both bottom-up cracking (alligator) as well as surface (top-down) longitudinal cracking. At present, no reflective cracking prediction model is incorporated in the 2002 design guide and only general recommendations were made in this dissertation.; The prediction process is based upon the incremental development of distress over time, traffic and climatic conditions. For accurate estimation of the traffic data, axle load spectra obtained was used to represent the traffic over the sections selected for calibration and validation. The Enhanced Integrated Climatic Model (EICM) was used for predicting the seasonal variation of temperature and moisture within the pavement system. The seasonal temperature and moisture prediction was the key to determine the incremental damage over time. Pavement response, used for the distress prediction, was based upon the layered elastic analysis methodology developed by Jacob Uzan (JULEA).; The final selection of the appropriate distress models was divided into two phases: calibration and validation. Calibration was conducted for two scenarios, one for those models that directly calculate the magnitude of the surface distress, such as the rutting. The second scenario was used for models that calculate the incremental damage index, rather than the actual distress magnitude. An example of this is the damage estimation for fatigue cracking. A total of 134 test sections with variable site conditions were selected for the overall study. The major sources of data were obtained from the Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Specific Pavement Study (SPS) and General Pavement Study (GPS) experiments, accelerated pavement testing (APT) experiments, and full-scale test roads. Finally, the dissertation presents the adjusted calibrated models that were used in the 2002 Design Guide. The approach was based upon engineering and statistical analysis.*; *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat.