Mevcut mekanistik-ampirik üstyapı tasarım rehberinin farklı tasarım parametreleri ile incelenmesi

The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) as the most advanced and sophisticated pavement design method was developed based on the United States conditions. Therefore, to implement this method for local conditions in other parts of the world, efforts such as local data collection, local calibration, sensitivity analysis, and local calibration should be conducted. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of different local design parameters (pavement layer thickness, HMA mixture properties, subgrade type, vehicle speed, binder grade as well as threshold values and reliability levels) on flexible pavement performance to facilitate the local calibration of the MEPDG in Izmir, Turkey. Therefore, in the first step, local data (traffic, material properties, pavement structures, and climate data) were collected and converted to the MEPDG format. In the second step, the sensitivity of local design inputs on the flexible pavement performance was determined using AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design Software 5.2.2. The analysis results revealed that: The layer thickness and vehicle speed have a strong effect on predicted pavement distresses. Total rutting and alligator cracking significantly reduced and top-down cracking highly increased with stiffer subgrade. The air voids (Va) and effective binder content (Vbe) in the wearing course have a strong effect on AC rutting, top-down and thermal cracking, and alligator cracking, while the alligator cracking was significantly affected from Va and Vbe in the AC base course. The pavement layer thicknesses increased significantly in the presence of lower threshold values and higher reliability than higher threshold values and lower reliability.