Thermal Cracking Performance Prediction and Asset Management Integration

摘要

With shrinking maintenance budgets and the need to do more with less, accurate, robust asset management tools are greatly needed for the transportation engineering community. In addition, the increased use of recycled materials and low energy production techniques such as warm-mix asphalt are leading to increased needs for preventive and rehabilitative maintenance activities. The timing of such activities will greatly affect the total discounted life-cycle cost of the pavement system. Low-temperature cracking of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavements continues to be a leading cause of premature pavement deterioration in regions of cold climate and/or where significant thermal cycling occurs. Recent advances in fracture testing and modeling of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) materials have greatly aided in the understanding of the key mechanisms behind this important pavement distress, which can greatly reduce pavement lifespan and the lifespan of subsequent rehabilitation cycles. However, there is a need for implementation of new models into a standalone program which can be readily utilized by researchers and practitioners. Moreover, the complete integration of material selection, material design, pavement design and pavement performance into a more holistic asset management system has been hampered by the lack of accurate, user-friendly performance prediction models for pavements. The objective of this project was to complete the development of a user-friendly interface that provides simplified access to sophisticated low-temperature cracking prediction models. This stand-alone program will greatly accelerate the transfer of this technology to practitioners and other interested scientists and engineers (pavement designers, analysts, and researchers). The program is designed to be compatible with the existing thermal cracking model used in the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG), and with the new thermal cracking model being developed under the National Pooled Fund Study on Low Temperature Cracking. As part of this report, the key developments associated with the new mechanics-based thermal cracking model are presented. The funding provided by this NexTrans supplement allowed the development of the thermal cracking software to include aspects which will facilitate its seamless integration into an overarching pavement management software program.