Development and Impact of the Egyptian Climatic Conditions on Flexible Pavement Performance

Maha A. Elshaeb¹, Sherif M. El-Badawy^1, and El-Sayed A. Shawaly¹

¹Graduate Student, Public Works Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt

Cite this paper:
Maha A. Elshaeb, Sherif M. El-Badawy and El-Sayed A. Shawaly. Development and Impact of the Egyptian Climatic Conditions on Flexible Pavement Performance. American Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture. 2014; 2(3):115-121. doi: 10.12691/ajcea-2-3-4

Abstract

Pavements are subject to environmental conditions, which affect the performance of both flexible and rigid pavements. The current flexible pavement design system in Egypt relies primarily on the 1993 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Design Guide. The method has many limitations. One of the serious limitations is the empirical drainage layer coefficients. These coefficients in addition to the seasonal variation of the roadbed resilient modulus are the only environmental consideration in the method. The newly AASHTO released production version of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) which is called AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design was developed to overcome the limitations inherent in the AASHTO 1993 method. Unlike the AASHTO 1993 method, Pavement ME Design method considers the variation in moisture and temperature on the mechanical properties of the pavement layers. Thus, the main objective of this study was to develop the climatic data to facilitate the implementation of Pavement ME Design in Egypt and study its influence on the pavement performance. Pavement ME required climatic data which are the hourly air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, sunshine and relative humidity were collected for 16 climatic locations distributed all over Egypt for four years. The quality of the data was checked and verified and the data was transformed to the format required by the software. A typical flexible pavement section was simulated using the ME design at the 16 different climatic locations and the performance predicted using the ME Design was analyzed. The performance indicators predicted by Pavement ME are rutting, alligator fatigue cracking, longitudinal cracking, thermal cracking, and International Roughness Index (IRI). Results showed that the pavement performance is significantly affected by the change in the climatic data. As expected, for Egypt, the most significant influence was on the predicted rutting of the Asphalt layer.

Keywords:
AASHTOWare MEPDG AASHTO 1993 climate cracking rutting performance

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Li, Q., Mills, L., McNeil, S., and Attoh-Okine, N., (2012) “Exploring the Impact of Climate Change On Pavement Performance And Design,” Presented at the Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting.
[2]	Huang, Y. H. (2004), Pavement Analysis and Design, Gourshetty Raju, 2004, Second Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458.
[3]	ARA, Inc., ERES Consultants Division. (2004). “Guide for Mechanistic-Empirical Design of New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures, NCHRP 1-37A Final Report,” ERES Consultants Division, Transportation research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
[4]	American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials, (2008). Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide: A Manual of Practice. Interim Edition, Washington, D.C. American Association of Highways and Transportation Officials.
[5]	Bayomy, F., El-Badawy, S., and Awed, A., May. 2012. “Implementation of the MEPDG for Flexible Pavements in Idaho,” (Report No. FHWA-ID-12-193). ITD Project RP 193, NIATT Project KLK557. National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho: U.S.
[6]	Saha, J., Nassiri S., Bayat, A., and Soleymani, H., “Evaluation of the Effects of Canadian Climate Conditions on the MEPDG Predictions for Flexible Pavement Performance,” International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 15 (5). 392-401. May. 2014
[7]	Meagher, W., Daniel, J. S., Jacobs, J., and Linder E., “ Method for Evaluating Implications of Climate Change for Design and Performance of Flexible Pavements,” Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, 2 (2305). 111-120. 2012
[8]	Byram, D., Xiao, D. X., Wang, K., C. P., and Hall, Kevin, (2012). “Sensitivity Analysis of Climatic Influence on MEPDG Flexible Pavement Performance Predictions,” Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD, TRB, The National Academies, Washington, DC.
[9]	Zaghloul, S., Ayed, A., AbdEl Halim, A., Vitillo N., and Sauber R. “Investigations of Environmental and Traffic Impacts on Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide Predictions,” Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, (1967). 148-159. 2006.
[10]	Darter, M., L. Titus-Glover, and H., Von Quintus. Implementation of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide in Utah: Validation, Calibration, and Development of the UDOT MEPDG User’s Guide. Report No. UT-09.11, Applied Research Associates, Inc., 2009.
[11]	Von Quintus, H. and J. Moulthrop. Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide Flexible Pavement Performance Prediction Models for Montana: Volume I Executive Research Summary. FHWA/MT-07-008/8158-1 Final Report, 2007.
[12]	Souliman, M. Calibration of the AASHTO MEPDG for Flexible Pavements for Arizona Conditions. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University, Master’s Thesis, 2009.
[13]	Li, J., L. Pierce, and J. Uhlmeryer. “Calibration of Flexible Pavement in Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide for Washington State.” Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2095 (2009): 73-83.
[14]	Ley Y., Kadam, S., Frazier, R., Robertson, B., and Riding, K. “Development and Implementation of a Mechanistic and Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) for Rigid Pavements,” Annual Report for FY 2009, ODOT SPR Item Number 2208, 2009.
[15]	Delgadillo, R., Wahr, C., Garcia, G., Osorio, L., and Salfate, O. (2014) “Generating Hourly Climatic Data from Available Weather Information for Pavement Design,” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board.
[16]	Dezotepe, G., and Ksaibati, K., “The Effect of Environmental Factors on the Implementation of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide,” Wyoming Technology Transfer Center, 2011.
[17]	Breakah, T., Williams, R., Herzmann, D., and Takle, E., “Effects of Using Accurate Climatic Conditions for Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design,” J. Transp. Eng., 137 (1), 2011, pp. 84-90.
[18]	Heitzman, M., Timm, D., Herzmann, D., Takle, G., and Traux, D. (2011). “Developing MEPDG Climate Data Input Files for Mississippi,” FHWA/MS—RD- DOT-11-232 Final Report, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 38762-9546.
[19]	Egyptian Meteorological Authority: http://ema.gov.eg, Accessed September 2013.
[20]	World Weather Online: http://www.worldweatheronline.com, Accessed January 2014.