Reliability, Damage, and Seasonal Considerations in the MnPAVE Mechanistic-Empirical Asphalt Pavement Design Computer Program

Mn/DOT is in the process of upgrading its Mechanistic-Empirical asphalt pavement design software (MnPAVE). In the process of evaluating the existing software, some problems with the reliability method (allowed repetitions method) were encountered. This paper presents a description of these problems and proposes the implementation of a new reliability method (damage factor method). In order to compare the reliability methods, eight pavement designs corresponding to a previous study were analyzed. In this study, two low-volume and two high volume pavements designed using FLEXPAVE were evaluated with the existing program. Simulations were conducted to determine the damage factors and reliabilities of the FLEXPAVE designs. A memo to the M/E Design Implementation Group at Mn/DOT describes the original study (see Appendix A).