• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.15-24
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• 2012

The MEPDG(Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide) developed based on the AASHTO Design Guide helps engineers find optimal alternatives by using traffic volume, climate, material property, and pavement structure as its input parameters. However, because technical problems were found in the MEPDG, efforts to improve the program by settling the problems have been continued. Meanwhile, another mechanistic-empirical design program has been developed by the KPRP(Korea Pavement Research Program) in Korea. To develop and improve the Korean design program reasonably, it is necessary to analyze the MEPDG and then compare programs each other. For concrete pavement, fatigue cracking is predicted by using very complicated logic different from other performance indicators. Therefore, in this paper, transfer functions of the fatigue cracking used in the version of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.1 of the MEPDG were analyzed. Sensitivity of the input parameters to the cumulative fatigue damage was compared to each other by the MEPDG version and KPRP.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.4 no.3 s.13
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• pp.1-13
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• 2002

Design methods for new flexible pavements and overlays are in the transition from empirical to mechanistic approach, and many state highway agencies trend to move toward the adoption and use of mechanistic-empirical (M-E) design in new constructions and rehabilitations of flexible pavements. Hence, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) decided to develop a M-E flexible pavement design procedure, in which major pavement distresses such as fatigue cracking and rutting are employed as indicators of the serviceability of a flexible pavement. The main concept of the developed design procedure is that a designed pavement that is supposed to carry a certain number of traffic must satisfy designated thresholds of rut depths and fatigue lives during a service period. For the M-E design procedure, transfer functions were developed to predict rut-depths and fatigue lives. These functions related the pavement responses to pavement performance. For validation, three current new flexible pavement design cases were obtained from the MDOT. In these cases, asphalt concrete (AC) layer thicknesses determined by the suggested M-E procedure compare favorably with those determined by the current MDOT design practice that is based on AASHTO design guide. This finding implies that the suggested Michigan M-E flexible pavement design procedure can provide a good opportunity to improve the current design practice.

• 한국도로학회지:도로
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• v.3 no.4 s.10
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• pp.52-53
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• 2001

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.79-89
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• 2008

The pavement performance model is the most important factor to determine the pavement life in the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG). As part of Korean Pavement Research Program (KPRP), the Korean Pavement Design Guide (KPDG) is currently being developed based on mechanistic-empirical principle. In this paper, the rutting prediction model of asphalt mixtures, one of the pavement performance model, has been developed using triaxial repeated loading testing data. This test was conducted on various types of asphalt mixtures for investigating the rutting characteristics by varying with the temperature and air void. The calibration process was made for the coefficients of rutting prediction model using the accelerated pavement testing data. The accuracy of prediction model can be increased when by considering the effect of individual rutting properties of materials rather than shear stresses with depths.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2011

Warm-Mix Asphalt(WMA) mixtures, which meet environmental protection and have high energy efficiency, are emerging as an alternative to hot-mix asphalt mixtures. The objective of this study is to evaluate WMA made with Aspha-min in the laboratory and to compare the design results accomplished by new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide(MEPDG) with control mixture. An asphalt mixture with a nominal maximum size of 12.5mm and PG64-28 binder was used. Resilient modulus tests for a control mixture and WMA with 0.3% and 0.5% of Aspha-min were conducted. The results obtained by MEPDG after inputting the test output into the design indicated that the predicted rut depth of WMA using Aspha-min was much lower than that of control mixture, and showed that WMA was more resistant to rutting than control mixture.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.51-59
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• 2011

Tensile stress occurs and random crack develops in concrete pavement slab when it contracts by variation of temperature and humidity. The tensile stress decreases and the random crack is minimized by sawcutting the slab and inducing the crack with regular spacing. The random crack, joint damage, decrease of load transfer efficiency are caused by too wide joint spacing while too narrow joint spacing leads to increase of construction cost and decrease of comfort. A mechanistic-empirical joint spacing design method for the concrete pavement was developed in this study. Structurally and environmentally weakest sections were found among the sections showing good performance, and design strengths were determined by finite element analysis on the sections. The joint width for which the load transfer efficiency is suddenly lowered was determined as allowable joint with referring to existing research results. The maximum joint spacing for which the maximum tensile stress calculated by the finite element analysis did not exceed the design strength were found. And the maximum joint width expected by the maximum joint spacing were compared to the allowable joint width. The new method developed in this study was applied to two zones of Hamyang-Woolsan Expressway being designed. The same joint spacing as a test section constructed by 8.0m of joint spacing wider than usual was calculated by the design method. Very low cracking measured at 6 years after opening of the test section verified the design method developed in this study.

• 한국도로학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.301-308
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• 2002

• 한국도로학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.03a
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• pp.45-53
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• 2011

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2011

The resilient modulus which is presented mechanical properties of compacted subbase material is the design parameter on the Mechanistic - Empirical pavement design guide. The compaction control method on the Mechanistic - Empirical pavement design guide will be the way to confirm whether the in-situ elastic modulus measured after the compaction meets the resilient modulus which is applied the design. The resilient modulus in this study is calculated by the neural network suggested by Korea Pavement Research Program, and degree of compaction as the existing compaction control test and plate bearing capacity test(PBT) was performed to confirm whether the in-situ elastic modulus is measured. The Light Falling Weight Deflectometer(LFWD) is additionally tested for correlation analysis between each in-situ elastic modulus and resilient modulus, and is proposed correlation equation and test interval which can reduced overall testing cost. Also, the subbase compaction control procedure based on the in-situ elastic modulus is proposed using the in-situ PBT and LFWD test result.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.5 no.1 s.15
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• pp.1-10
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• 2003

The objective of pavement design, just as with the design of other structures, is to obtain the most economical designs at specified levels of reliability. Methods that yield designs with different levels of reliability are undesirable, and over the course of time design approaches in the U.S. and Europe have converged toward the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) format in order to assure uniform reliability. At present the LRFD format has been implemented in concrete, steel, wood and bridge design specifications. In this paper, reliability theories are used to illustrate the development of an LRFD format for Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) design of flexible pavements as an alternative of its reliability module. It is shown in this paper that ten candidate pavement sections designed with a reliability level using the AASHTO design guide (1986) do not have uniform structural reliability in terms of pavement mechanistic distress such as fatigue cracking and the uniform reliability can be achieved by using the LRFD format.