01552731

Component

The calibration coefficients in the AASHTOWare Pavement ME are inputs that are adjusted, if needed, to ensure the Pavement ME performance predictions match the observed field performances. For the design of new jointed plain concrete pavements (JPCPs), three national calibrations have been necessary due to updates in either the performance prediction models or the calibration database. Local calibration is recommended to further refine predictions so that they better match a state’s experience. This has resulted in some states believing that only locally calibrated models can yield reliable designs. To date, local calibration efforts with JPCP modeling has resulted in eleven states adopting national calibration coefficients, and eight states changing one or more national calibration coefficients to a local calibration coefficient. To determine the impact that local calibration has had, a review of the states that have changed their calibration coefficients was completed in order to answer the following questions: How does local calibration improve the performance of the Pavement ME? How do performance predictions/designs using local calibrations compare to those using national calibrations? How do Pavement-ME designs compare to existing empirical designs? To answer these questions, the performances of hypothetical JPCP sections were compared using both local and national calibration coefficients. It was found that local calibrations addressed the bias of prediction, but did not significantly reduce the standard errors of prediction. When using Pavement ME to design thickness, similar or thinner sections were obtained with the use of local coefficients. In comparing designs developed using the AASHTO 1993 Guide for Design of Pavement Structures, it was found that the Pavement ME yielded thinner designs regardless of the calibration coefficients used.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFD50 Rigid Pavement Design.

01550057

15-4899

English

15p

2015

Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Calibration; Concrete pavements; Mathematical models; Mechanistic-empirical pavement design; Thickness

Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide

Jointed plain concrete pavements

Design; Highways; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2015 Paper #15-4899

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 30 2014 1:38PM