A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE-RELATED MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION SPECIFICATIONS

In this paper, pavement design and performance concepts that provide a systematic basis for the development of specifications for materials and construction (M&C) factors are identified. It is assumed that the conceptual framework for specifications development includes eight sets of relationships among the process variables and nine sets of inputs or outputs for the relationships. Independent variables are selected that have predictable effects on performance-related output variables. From these independent variables, variables (EPF) appearing explicitly in prediction functions are selected and subdivided into traffic factors, environmental factors, and pavement structure factors. EPF variables can be replaced by surrogate variables (SPF) when M&C control for these secondary variables is easier to provide. Other secondary variables are the control factors (CF), which have predictable effects on EPF or SPF variables. EPF variables related to the M&C process are denoted MCF. In general, a stochastic prediction model consists of a prediction function that may be completely known from mechanistic considerations; that may be partially known except for undetermined constants; or that may be assumed to be a linear combination of linear, curvilinear, and interaction effects (with undetermined constants) among the independent variables. When the effect of error variables is added to the prediction function, the prediction model can be compared to the experimental design, and analyses of variance and covariance and regression analysis can be applied. General forms of prediction equations for stress and distress, stress-load equivalence relationships, traffic prediction relationships, relationships among M&C specification factors, and performance-cost relationships are presented. Pavement design criteria and M&C specification factors are added as the initial conditions for the definition of a pavement design for a given pavement requirement. It is assumed that the M&C specifications will be derived in every case from computational algorithms, though development of these algorithms requires results from future research.

Media Info

  • Media Type: Print
  • Features: Figures; References;
  • Pagination: pp 1-27
  • Monograph Title: Construction
  • Serial:

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00469478
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 0309045177
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Jul 31 1988 12:00AM