Enhancement of Asphalt Pavement Evaluation Using Monte Carlo Simulation and Accelerated Pavement Testing

Abstract

Abstract Pavement engineers often are required to evaluate quickly new pavement structures, new paving materials, or pavement performance. In the past decades, pavement engineers have employed prediction models or tests to fulfill these tasks. Recently, great effort has been made to utilize accelerated pavement testing (APT) to evaluate pavements in situ. Because APT requires building test sections and sophisticated loading facilities, the individual test section is very short and the number of test sections is usually small. Consequently, the test results may not take into account variability in pavement materials, traffic estimation, and surrounding conditions. This paper investigates use of Monte Carlo simulation in conjunction with APT to evaluate asphalt pavement structure and performance. It is shown that the capability of APT for pavement evaluation has been enhanced. The proposed pavement evaluation approach allows for considering variability in pavement properties and traffic estimation, and can generate realistic results.