The authors gratefully acknowledge all of the individuals with state departments of transportation (DOTs) who responded to the pavement friction survey conducted for this project. The authors also express their gratitude for the valuable input provided by knowledgeable representatives of DOTs, paving associations, academia, and manufacturers of friction measuring equipment, vehicle tires, and trucks.
One of the most common types of pavement on the national highway system is composite asphalt concrete (AC) over portland cement concrete (PCC). With a large percentage of PCC pavements either approaching or at the end of their design lives, AC overlay of PCC pavements has become one of the most common methods of rehabilitation. This has resulted in several thousand kilometers of composite AC/PCC pavements. As the level of heavy truck traffic loading continues to increase on a majority of pavements, it is likely that the total length of composite pavements in the nation will continue to increase considerably in the coming years. A common type of distress that occurs on these composite pavements is reflective cracking. This occurs when the joints or cracks in the underlying PCC pavement reflect through the AC overlay. A performance model that can be used to predict accurately the amount of reflective cracks in composite AC/PCC pavements has enormous potential uses. The development of a mechanistic-based performance model for predicting the amount of reflective cracks in composite AC/PCC pavements is described. Data from the Long-Term Pavement Performance database were used to develop the model. Using the principles of fracture mechanics, it is illustrated that a mechanistic-based model can be developed that closely models the real-life behavior of composite pavements and predicts the amount of reflective cracks. Because of the mechanistic nature of the model, it is particularly effective for performance prediction for design checks and pavement management. Also, since the model can take into account the relative damaging effect of the actual axle loads in any traffic distribution, it has great potential for application in cost allocation.
The Portland Cement Association (PCA) pavement thickness design method for jointed concrete pavements is mechanistically based and consists of both fatigue and erosion analyses. It determines the minimum slab thickness required for a given set of site and design conditions on the basis of both fatigue and erosion criteria. At the heart of the fatigue analysis is the fatigue model, which establishes the number of allowable load repetitions for a given stress ratio [ratio of flexural edge stress caused by the application of wheel loads to the portland cement concrete (PCC) slab flexural strength]. The PCA fatigue model is based on data derived from beam fatigue tests conducted in the early 1950s and 1960s. The model estimates the conservative lower-bound estimate of the allowable number of load applications at a given stress ratio (i.e., it incorporates a high degree of reliability–-approximately 90% or higher). Although this may be desirable for high-volume, high-traffic pavements, it is too conservative for low-volume roads or street pavements. The PCA pavement thickness design method currently is being used in the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) pavement design software, StreetPave. StreetPave incorporates the PCA's pavement thickness design methodology in a Windows-based user platform. ACPA commissioned a study to expand, improve, and broaden the current PCA fatigue model by including reliability as a parameter for predicting PCC fatigue damage and by calibrating the enhanced model with additional fatigue data from recently completed studies. An enhanced fatigue model was then developed.
Design considerations for pavement subsurface drainage in new or reconstructed jointed concrete pavements are outlined for all components of a permeable base system (permeable bases, separator layers, edgedrains, and outlets). Discussion topics—including guidelines for determining drainage needs, permeable base system components, hydraulic design of permeable base systems, structural design of permeable bases and separator layers, and economic considerations for providing drainage—are arranged to provide a comprehensive picture of the subject area. For topics with established procedures, such as the hydraulic design of permeable bases, a synthesis of information is presented. Where there is a lack of information or a clear consensus among researchers on a topic, new ideas and concepts are proposed.
Proper consideration of traffic loading in pavement design requires knowledge of the full axle load distribution by the main axle types, including single, tandem, and tridem axles. Although the equivalent single axle load (ESAL) concept has been used since the 1960s for empirical pavement design, the new mechanistic-based pavement design procedures under development by various agencies most likely will require the use of the axle load distribution. Procedures and models for converting average daily traffic into ESALs and axle load distribution are presented, as are the relevant issues on the characterization of the full axle load distributions for single, tandem, and tridem axles for use in mechanistic-based pavement design. Weigh-in-motion data from the North Central Region of the Long-Term Pavement Performance study database were used to develop the models for predicting axle load distribution.
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