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Abstract for presentation (Poster or Podium) with a Paper in the Conference Proceedings

Highway Pavements

Sensitivity analysis of PMED Climate Data Input for the State of Tennessee

Monday, June 17, 2024
10:15 AM - 11:30 AM ET
Room: Galleria
Abstract:

This paper presents the analysis of Pavement Mechanistic-Empirical Design (PMED) climate input data for the state of Tennessee. Two climatic data sources are considered for the analysis, North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), and Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Application (MERRA). First the sensitivity analysis using 2k factorial design method, considering lower and higher extremes of each climatic input and water table, was conducted to determine the sensitivity of climatic inputs to pavement distress predictions. Then Virtual Weather stations (VWSs) were created, and their predicted performance was analyzed in comparison to the existing stations. On sensitivity analysis of the Enhanced Integrated Climatic Model (EICM) model, temperature was the most sensitive climatic input in PMED distress predictions, while humidity had no effect to pavement distress predictions. Performance evaluation of PMED VWSs indicated a significant difference in some of the predicted distresses when comparing PMED VWSs and MERRA stations at identical locations.

 

Learning Objectives:

Attendees can expect to learn the following from this session:
  • Select climatic database suitable for pavement design using Pavement Mechanistic Empirical Design (PMED) software.
  • Identify climate factors that are sensitive to pavement performance.
  • Compare the effect of predicted pavement distresses using MERRA and PMED virtual Weather Stations