Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement Model Evaluation

The mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide developed under NCHRP Project 1-37A employs mechanistic models to calculate pavement primary responses for predicting pavement performance. Therefore, it is imperative that the primary response models be evaluated in relation to their prediction accuracy. In this study, both theoretical accuracy verification and comparison with field measurement were employed to judge the prediction quality of three primary response models commonly used in concrete pavement analysis, namely, ISLAB2000, JSLAB2004, and EverFE2.22. The theoretical evaluation involved simulations, sensitivity trials, and comparisons of calculated slab stress, strain, and deflection responses of a number of hypothetical pavement systems. The field evaluation involved direct comparison of model-simulated responses against those measured from the SHRP Ohio test section. It was found that the agreement between analytical solutions and those obtained by the three analysis programs was affected by the...