The new mechanistic-empirical model (M-E) developed under the NCHRP 1-37A initiative is a significant advancement in pavement design mainly because it addresses industry needs to switch to a performance-based practice. However, achieving this performance-based design goal with the new M-E guide depends substantially on employing mechanistic material characteristics in the analysis to produce accurate predictions of a number of distress types and smoothness. Material properties needed as input by the new M-E model for conducting an advanced design exercise (level 1) are beyond what is available from conventional characterization techniques adopted in the current practice. Laboratory facilities are not yet ready to meet testing requirements related to the mechanistic characterization scheme. This paper describes a proposal for using generic mechanistic material properties to perform design based on level 1 for asphalt concrete (AC) and level 3 for unbound materials. For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD number E211521.
Samenvatting