Daily Schedule:
8:00am - Registration and coffee (1st day only)
8:30am - Session begins
5:00pm - Adjournment
Breakfast, two refreshment breaks and lunch are provided daily
Description:
Most of the current pavement design methods including AASHTO Pavement Design are empirical-based. This means that they were developed based on considering limited local pavement materials, environmental factors, and traffic conditions. Although these pavement design methods have been used successfully by many highway agencies, frequently they are not accurate for specific pavement materials and environmental conditions other than they have been developed. Additionally these methods were developed based on traffic volume and vehicle types in 1950’s and are not adequate for the existing and future traffic volume and types.
A Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) has been developed in the USA under NCHRP 1-37A in 2004 to address shortcomings in the current pavement design methods. This Guide incorporates pavement knowledge and experiences, which were developed during the last 50 years.
Many highway agencies have plans to implement the MEPDG as their pavement design method. Implementation of the MEPDG requires training, data collection, and local calibration/validation of performance models in MEPDG.
Objective:
The main objective of this workshop is to provide participants with a through understanding of shortcomings in the current pavement design methods and to introduce important pavement design factors, traffic, materials, and environmental factors for the MEPDG.
Participants will learn how to use the MEPDG software and how to interpret the outputs. The focus of the workshop will be on MEPDG flexible pavement design.
Target Audience:
The workshop is intended for pavement owners/users, consulting engineers, contractors and engineering technologists. A basic background of pavement engineering is required. This course is an excellent opportunity for those wishing to develop their knowledge on the latest technology in the area of pavement design, maintenance and rehabilitation.
Upon completion of the workshop participant will be able to:
- Shortcomings in the current pavement design methods.
- Traffic considerations in MEPDG
- Pavement materials considerations in MEPDG
- Environmental considerations in MEPDG
- Sensitivity of input parameters in MEPDG flexible pavement design
- MEPDG for rehabilitation of flexible pavements
- Application of MEPDG software for flexible pavement design
- Implementation Issues and challenge
Program Outline (12 PDH)
Day I:
Introduction to MEPDG
- Current pavement design methods and their shortcomings
- Review of AASHTO pavement design method and its limitations
- Why we need a MEPDG?
- Key points in MEPDG
- Traffic considerations in MEPDG
- Traffic considerations and calculations in existing pavement design methods
- ESAL and its limitations
- Traffic considerations in MEPDG (traffic spectrum)
- Traffic data for three MEPDG levels
- Flexible pavement material considerations in MEPDG
- Inputs for unbound pavement layers
- Inputs for asphalt concrete pavement material
- Material inputs for three levels of MEPDG
- Environmental considerations in MEPDG
- Introduction to Integrated Climatic Model
- Environmental data for MEPDG
- Hands on MEPDG software for flexible pavements
- Example of entering data and running MEPDG software
Day II:
MEPDG Pavement Maintenance and Implementation Issues
-
Flexible pavement rehabilitation in MEPDG
-
Sensitivity of input parameters for MEPDG flexible pavement design.
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Performance models for MEPDG flexible pavement design
-
Implementation of MEPDG; issues and challenges
Instructor
Hamid R. Soleymani, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Hamid R. Soleymani has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Civil Engineering and Transportation Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. After graduating, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the North Central Superpave Center at Purdue University (USA) for three years. Dr. Soleymani was a faculty member at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta from 2000 to 2006 and as the Director of Transportation Research Centre since 2010-2013. He taught civil engineering materials, transportation, and pavement management systems at the graduate and undergraduate levels for several years and conducted several research studies in highways and transportation areas.
He worked with EBA Engineering Consultants as a senior pavements and materials engineer from 2006 to 2010. During this time, he completed many pavement preservation and materials projects and also conducted numerous research studies for Alberta Transportation and other highway agencies. Recently he joined the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure as a senior Pavements and Materials Engineer.
Dr. Soleymani has over 15 years of academic and industrial experience in the areas of pavement management, design and materials and is a registered professional engineer. He has published more than 30 papers in technical journals and conferences. His expertise and research interest areas include: asphalt and Portland cement concrete; Superpave mix design; pavement design, maintenance and rehabilitation; materials characterization and modeling; pavement performance evaluation; mechanistic pavement design; and pavement management systems.
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