Effect of variation of the average daily volume and traffic growth rate on flexible pavements performance

• Published in: Ingeniare : Revista Chilena de Ingenieria Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 58 - 68
• Main Authors: Hirooka Koshigoe, Amanda Sati, Vargas Zanoni, Fernando César, Prado Silva Júnior, Carlos Alberto, Barbosa Fontenele, Heliana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arica Universidad de Tarapacá 01-03-2019
• Subjects: Computer simulation; Concrete pavements; Empirical analysis; ENGINEERING, MULTIDISCIPLINARY; Flexible pavements; Pavement design; Sensitivity analysis; Software; Traffic; Traffic information; Brazil; Rio de Janeiro Brazil; Mechanistic-empirical software; AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design; AASHTOW are Pavement ME Design; MEPDG
• ISSN: 0718-3305; 0718-3291; 0718-3305
• DOI: 10.4067/S0718-33052019000100058

Pavement design, initially based on empirical methods, has been improved and, currently, there is a tendency to replace these methods by mechanistic-empirical ones. This new methodology uses detailed information on traffic, climate and pavement structure to obtain accurate performance predictions, providing a better design. In this study, it was performed a sensitivity analysis of flexible pavements to investigate the effect that the variation of annual average daily traffic (AADT) and traffic growth rate has on structural pavement responses. Therefore, simulations were done using two computer programs, MEPDG and AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design, whose results indicated that the pavement has sensitivity to both variations that were studied (AADT and traffic growth rate), demonstrating higher deterioration values when the traffic growth rate was nonlinear. It was also concluded that the difference between sensitivity values obtained by both programs was insignificant.