Review of National and State-Level Calibrations of the AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design for New Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement

Abstract

For the design of new jointed plain concrete pavements (JPCPs), three national calibrations of the AASHTOWare Pavement ME have been necessary due to updates in either the prediction models or the calibration database. Local calibration is recommended to further refine predictions so that they better match a state’s experience. To date, local calibration efforts resulted in eight states changing one or more coefficients to a local value, while eleven states have decided to directly adopt national calibration coefficients. To determine the impact of local calibrations relative to the national calibration, a review of the national and local calibration efforts was completed. Local and national calibration coefficients were compared in two scenarios. In the first scenario, Pavement ME was employed to evaluate the performance of a hypothetical JPCP section. In the second scenario, Pavement ME was used as a tool for determining the thickness of pavements with various design features. It was found that for most states the pavement performance differed quite significantly between the local and national calibrations. However, in terms of design thickness, no evident difference could be statistically concluded for most of the states. In comparing designs developed using AASHTO 1993 Guide for Design of Pavement Structures, it was found that the Pavement ME yielded thinner designs regardless of the calibration coefficients used.