With freezing indices ranging from 1000 to over 2000 degrees celcius a day and frost penetration reaching up to 3 metres under pavement surface, frost action has always been a major concern for pavement engineers in the province of Quebec (Canada). Faced with increasing needs and limited technical tools to cope with frost action on pavements, the Ministry of Transportation has undertaken a major study with two primary objectives. The first one is to revisit the whole approach of pavement design in frost conditions and to develop a rational pavement design method which deals with frost action. The second is to evaluate alternative techniques to protect pavement against the detrimental effects of frost action. detrimental effects of frost action. In order to support these two objectives, a specific pavement monitoring program has also been developed. This paper presents the work done to develop first generation performance models using Bayesian statistics. (A)
Samenvatting