THE EFFECT OF TRAFFIC CHARACTERIZATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT

Abstract

The characterization of traffic loads is of great importance for pavement design, as well as for the measurement of performance in a pavement management system. Thus, the objective of this research was to analyze the effects of traffic characteristics on pavement performance through the generation of statistical models based on the concept proposed by the AASHTO mechanistic empirical method, axle load spectra of commercial vehicles, comparing them with the concept of load equivalence factor, developed through the AASHO Road Test. Data collected in 2008 in a weighing station located on Immigrant Highway, SP-160, km 28, southern runway, were used for the development of load spectra and subsequent modeling. The comparison between the results predicted by the models and the original data, made either by empirical and empirical-mechanistic approaches, with use of computer programs ELSYM5 and MEPDG, shows that the Weibull model is the most suitable for application in Brazilian highways with similar traffic characteristics to the Immigrants Highway. Keywords: road vehicles, traffic load, axle load, axle load spectra, pavement performance.