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Developing Implementable Climatic Input Data and Moisture Boundary Conditions for Pavement Analysis and Design

Environmental conditions have a significant effect on the pavement performance. Of all the environmental factors, temperature and moisture have a direct impact on the pavement layer and subgrade properties. As a result, improving the understanding of environmental interactions with pavement systems can help predict the changes in pavement material properties over time. The current AASHTOWare Pavement ME software package utilizes the enhanced integrated climatic model (EICM) for applying the effects of climate on the pavement materials. The software uses historical climatic files that have been developed for each state in the US. However, these files are in most cases limited in number and region within each state, and therefore cannot represent the site-specific climate information. Therefore, there is a need to develop practical and implementable predictive models to study the moisture regime within the pavement subgrade in response to site-specific climate data. The Oklahoma Mesonet data can be utilized in developing the climate boundary conditions for the predictive model proposed in this study. Therefore, this study will mainly focus on improving our understanding of environmental interactions with pavement systems to better predict the changes in pavement material properties over time. The main objective of this study is to develop implementable, realistic climatic input data, and to develop a practical and implementable numerical model for predicting the moisture regime within the pavement subgrade system.