01620190

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2640-02

The AASHTOWare Pavement Mechanistic–Empirical Design software requires hourly temperature, wind speed, percentage sunshine, precipitation, and relative humidity to properly calculate pavement damage and distresses. Actual or measured values, which vary hourly throughout a day for a given site, are required to properly capture the damage caused by environmental loadings. Currently the mechanistic–empirical design hourly climatic data contain approximately 1,200 U.S. and 300 Canadian stations. The U.S. stations typically contain data from 1995 through 2005, and data from the Canadian stations vary in length from 10 to 50 years, with the exception of some weather stations. Some agencies expanded their historical weather data to include longer periods of time. This paper documents the process and data sources that were used to update the current set of climate stations with climate data dating back to 1979 using the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) database. The results of the comparison between new climate files and the existing older climate data files for use in pavement design are presented. Overall, the NARR-generated climate data showed a very good comparison. The paper details the background of the NARR and its limitations and compares the performance predictions made by using the old and new climate data. The results indicate there is no systematic bias between the two climate data sets.

01632437

17-05513

English

pp 11–20

2017

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309441780

Digital/other

Figures (8) ; Maps; References (4) ; Tables (1)

Climate; Data collection; Data files; Data quality; Hourly; Mechanistic-empirical pavement design

AASHTOWare (Software); North American Regional Reanalysis

Data and Information Technology; Design; Highways; Pavements

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 12:11PM

• Accelerated Load Testing to Compare the Performance of Full-Depth Reclamation with Foamed Asphalt Under Three Environmental Conditions
• Autonomous Vehicles: Assessment of the Implications of Truck Positioning on Flexible Pavement Performance and Design
• Calibration of Asphalt Strain Transducers by Using Digital Image Correlation
• Deployment of the Next Generation Concrete Surface in Minnesota
• Ductile Concrete Material with Self-Healing Capacity for Jointless Concrete Pavement Use
• Further Evaluation of Limiting Strain Criteria for Perpetual Asphalt Pavement Design
• Impact of Concrete Pavement Structural Response on Rolling Resistance and Vehicle Fuel Economy
• Integrating the Dynamic Modulus of Asphalt Mixes in the 1993 AASHTO Design Method
• Load Spectra–Incorporated Fatigue Cracking Model Implementation and Case Study
• Preparation of Joint Faulting Data for the Local Calibration of AASHTO Pavement Mechanistic–Empirical Design in Louisiana
• Thermal Stress Calculation Method for Concrete Pavement Based on Temperature Prediction and Finite Element Method Analysis