INFLUENCE OF VARIATION IN MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION CHARACTERISTICS ON PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE

In this paper a general description is given of the way the variations and uncertainties of the design parameters can be taken into account in the prediction of the structural behavior of pavement constructions. First, the authors describe the hypothetical situation of fully known frequency distributions for the design parameters over a road section. After this, they generalize this description by considering the influence of the uncertainty in the frequency distributions of the design parameters. As a partial quantitative elaboration of this general description, they present the influence of estimated variations in the design parameters on the fatigue performance of a road section with a full-depth bituminous pavement. It appears that consideration of the frequency distributions and their uncertainty is essential to enable a prediction of structural pavement behavior that allows comparison with observed behavior.