A SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT SYSTEM FPS2

A SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS WAS PERFORMED TO ESTABLISH THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE AND COST SENSITIVITIES OF THE DIFFERENT VARIABLES ON THE FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT SYSTEM, TO STUDY CHANGES IN THE STRUCTURAL DESIGNS GENERATED DUE TO CHANGES IN THE VARIABLE VALUES, AND TO COMPLETELY DEBUG THE PROGRAM TO FIND ANOMALIES AND PROBLEM AREAS. AN EXPERIMENT WAS DESIGNED TO OBTAIN THE REQUIRED INFORMATION. THREE BASIC SOLUTIONS WERE OBTAINED AT THREE BASIC LEVELS OF THE VARIABLES: LOW, AVERAGE, AND HIGH. THE SENSITIVITY OF EACH VARIABLE WAS STUDIED AT EACH OF THESE THREE BASIC LEVELS BY CHANGING THE VALUE OF THE PARTICULAR VARIABLE TO THE OTHER TWO LEVELS. A TOTAL OF OVER 400 PROBLEMS WERE SOLVED FOR THIS ANALYSIS. EACH PROBLEM THUS SOLVED WAS ANALYZED CAREFULLY FOR THE OVERALL COST OF THE OPTIMAL DESIGN AND ITS DIFFERENT COST CONSTITUENTS, DESIGN THICKNESS OBTAINED, AND NUMBER OF FEASIBLE DESIGNS GENERATED. BASED ON THE DESIGN AND COST SENSITIVITIES, THE VARIABLES PRODUCING SIMILAR EFFECTS WERE GROUPED TOGETHER. THE VARIABLES WERE RATED IN THE ORDER OF THEIR IMPORTANCE WITH RESPECT TO THE OVERALL COST OF THE OPTIMAL DESIGN. RECOMMENDATIONS ARE MADE IN TWO GENERAL AREAS, (1) THAT OF USING THE COMPUTER PROGRAM, AND (2) THAT OF ACHIEVING BETTER SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS INFORMATION FOR A SIMILAR EXPERIMENT IF PERFORMED IN THE FUTURE. /AUTHOR/