Date of Award
Spring 2010
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
First Advisor
Crovetti, James A.
Second Advisor
Foley, Christopher
Third Advisor
Wan, Baolin
Abstract
With the emergence of the mechanistic-empirical pavement design process, development of pavements rely on the structural response and fatigue characteristics of pavement materials due to traffic loads. In the past, pavement design has been almost entirely based on empirical data. One area of interest in designing hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavements is the fatigue life of the pavement, which has been shown to be dependent on the horizontal strain in the pavement.
This research is focused on measuring the structural response of a pavement located within the Marquette Interchange Project in order to analyze fatigue behavior with great detail. Virtually all variables which affect the life of HMA pavements were measured and analyzed in accordance with the structural data. Assumptions that were historically used in design were verified and suggestions regarding the structural response of the pavement are given. These include results from analyses of load pulse duration, analytical stress/strain predictions, and strain influence.