Browsing by Author "Membah, Joseph, M.S."

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Stochastic Characterization, Simulation, and Analysis of Environmental (Precipitation and Temperature) Inputs into the M-E Design Framework
(North Dakota State University, 2010) Membah, Joseph, M.S.
The engineering design of pavements is a complex process requiring regular updating and calibration to produce durable and resilient road surfaces. To achieve this goal, research is conducted continuously to obtain input parameters which are used to produce advanced tools. Recently, an advanced pavement structural design tool termed the Mechanistic Empirical (M-E) Pavement Design approach was introduced to the engineering community. The M-E process employs issues about engineering, traffic, environmental factors, construction, and economics in the design and selection of appropriate types of road surfaces. Although the new M-E approach can result in improved designs, the approach does not address a design methodology for selecting the best pavement for a particular application. Currently, State Highway Agencies employ different procedures to design pavements based on empirical data collected in 1960s. The trials used data collected during two climatic seasons. Since then, a number of research initiatives have been conducted investigating issues such as soil characterization, traffic, and construction. However, none have focused on environmental issues which also provide inputs for the ME design framework. This research focuses on temperature and precipitation: two main environmental factors of concern. The M-E design approach uses traditional statistical analysis to compute the input parameters of sampling points which are often spread over a large geographic region and do not provide a representative sample. Because temperature and precipitation are composed of continuous data, geostatistics were employed to compute statistical parameters through stochastic characterization, simulation, and analysis.