Funding/Research Supports
National Research Council Canada (NRC)
Project Status
Active
Project Overview
This research focuses on improving the reliability and climate adaptability of flexible pavement design in Canada through the local calibration of the AASHTOWare Pavement Mechanistic-Empirical Design (PMED) tool. While PMED represents a significant advancement over traditional design methods by incorporating climatic, traffic, and material factors, its current distress prediction models are based primarily on U.S. data and historical climate records. As a result, they may not accurately capture Canadian conditions or future climate variability.
To address these limitations, the project aims to calibrate PMED transfer functions using Canadian-specific data, ensuring more accurate prediction of pavement distresses such as rutting, cracking, and roughness. A key component of the research involves evaluating the impact of climate change on pavement performance using projected climate scenarios, including Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). These projections are analyzed across multiple time periods ranging from historical to long-term future periods to assess how evolving environmental conditions influence pavement behavior.
The study adopts a multi-phase approach involving data collection, climatic sensitivity analysis, nationwide impact assessment, and statistical calibration of PMED models. Advanced simulations capture regional variations in environmental conditions across Canada. The goal is to develop a climate-resilient, regionally calibrated pavement design framework that improves prediction accuracy, supports sustainable infrastructure planning, and enhances long-term performance while reducing maintenance costs.