Development of Dynamic Viscoelastic Pavement Analysis Program

Most pavement analysis programs such as the multilayer analysis programs are primarily based on the static and/or elastic models, in which either the dynamic and/or viscoelastic properties are not accounted for. The response modeling in the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) is actually based on a static elastic approach to emulate the dynamic viscoelastic response. This research developed a dynamic viscoelastic finite element (FE) model and pavement analysis program for simulating responses of flexible pavements. Falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is utilized for validation as it captures the time history information at variable distances. Case studies indicate that a dynamic-viscoelastic model that considers damping could more accurately emulate pavement responses than the static elastic, static viscoelastic, dynamic elastic, and dynamic viscoelastic without damping models. In the future study, the effects of different mechanistic models on performance prediction and pavement design using the MEPDG program will be evaluated.