Improved characterization of truck traffic volumes and axle loads for mechanistic-empirical pavement design.

Details

• Creators:
  Abbas, Ala R. ; Frankhouser, Andrew
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Akron. Department of Civil Engineering
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Annual Average Daily Traffic Automatic Data Collection Systems Axle Load Force Flexible Pavements Pavement Design Pavement Performance Pavements, Flexible Pavements--Design And Construction Pavements--Performance Rigid Pavements Traffic Data Traffic Monitoring Traffic Surveillance Truck Traffic Weigh-in-motion Systems Weigh In Motion

  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA/OH-2012/21
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Ohio
• Edition:
  Final report.
• Corporate Publisher:
  Ohio. Dept. of Transportation. Office of Research and Development ; United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Abstract:
  The recently developed mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG) requires a multitude of traffic
  
  inputs to be defined for the design of pavement structures, including the initial two-way annual average daily truck
  
  traffic (AADTT), directional and lane distribution factors, vehicle class distribution, monthly adjustment factors,
  
  hourly truck distribution factors, traffic growth rate, axle load spectra by truck class (Class 4 to Class 13) and axle type
  
  (single, tandem, tridem, and quad), and number of axles per truck. Since it is not always practical to obtain sitespecific
  
  traffic data, the MEPDG assimilates a hierarchal level concept that allows pavements to be designed using
  
  statewide averages and MEPDG default values without compromising the accuracy of the pavement design. In this
  
  study, a Visual Basic for Application (VBA) code was developed to analyze continuous traffic monitoring data and
  
  generate site-specific and statewide traffic inputs. The traffic monitoring data was collected by 143 permanent traffic
  
  monitoring sites (93 automated vehicle classifier (AVC) and 50 weigh-in-motion (WIM) sites) distributed throughout
  
  the State of Ohio from 2006 to 2011. The sensitivity of the MEPDG to the various traffic inputs was evaluated using
  
  two baseline pavement designs, one for a new flexible pavement and one for a new rigid pavement. Key performance
  
  parameters for the flexible pavement included longitudinal (top-down) fatigue cracking, alligator (bottom-up) fatigue
  
  cracking, transverse (low-temperature) cracking, rutting, and smoothness (expressed using IRI), while key
  
  performance parameters for the rigid pavement included transverse cracking (% slabs cracked), joint faulting, and
  
  smoothness. The sensitivity analysis results revealed that flexible pavements are moderately sensitive to AADTT,
  
  growth rate, vehicle class distribution, and axle load spectra; and not sensitive to hourly distribution factors, monthly
  
  adjustment factors, and number of axles per truck. Furthermore, it was found that rigid pavements are moderately
  
  sensitive to AADTT, growth rate, hourly distribution factors, vehicle class distribution, and axle load spectra; and not
  
  sensitive to monthly adjustment factors and number of axles per truck. Therefore, it is recommended to estimate the
  
  AADTT and the vehicle class distribution from site-specific short-term or continuous counts and obtain the truck
  
  growth rate from ODOT Modeling and Forecasting Section (Certified Traffic). As for the other traffic inputs,
  
  statewide averages can be used for the hourly distribution factors, axle load spectra, and number of axles per truck; and
  
  MEPDG defaults can be used for the monthly adjustment factors.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  134557
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:6d415320a551838c7cb034ec5b950a967740187490c070cac86e84ba68953236
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/25691/dot_25691_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 10.89 MB ]