Real-world Comparison of Common Pavement Design Softwares

本研究项目旨在发展一种基于有限元建模的全新的全机械路面设计方法。设计方法采用PSI技术公司开发的PSIPave3D软件。该研究将该软件与加拿大各地常用的路面设计方法进行了比较。这些现有的方法在很大程度上是经验推导的，这意味着它们在加拿大情况下的应用往往是有问题的。机械设计考虑了组成材料的实际行为和场地条件，以提供路面结构性能的真实预测。此外，该研究还涉及开发一种实验室程序，以一种可以在PSIPave3D中实现的方式来表征路面施工材料。随后，常见的铺路和路基材料将被描述并纳入材料数据库，这将使软件更广泛地适用。常见路面材料的选择将通过向加拿大各地的各种从业者分发调查来进行，询问他们的典型材料和条件。最后，将对现有部分进行分析，并与psipae3d设计的结果进行比较作为验证。这项研究的结果将是一个路面设计工具，将适用于整个加拿大，并将为路面设计师提供有意义的路面力学分析。

This research program aims to develop a new and fully mechanistic pavement design method that is based on finite element modeling. The design method uses the software PSIPave3D, which was developed by PSI Technologies Inc. The research compares this software to pavement design methods that are commonly used across Canada. These existing methods are largely empirically-derived, which means that their application to Canadian conditions can often be questionable. Mechanistic design considers the actual behaviours of the constituent materials and conditions of the site to provide a real prediction of the pavement structure's performance. Additionally, the research involves the development of a laboratory procedure for characterizing pavement construction materials in a way which can be implemented into PSIPave3D. Subsequently, common paving and subgrade materials will be characterized and incorporated into a materials database which will make the software more widely applicable. The selection of common pavement materials will be performed via the distribution of a survey to various practitioners throughout Canada, inquiring about their typical materials and conditions. Finally, analysis of existing sections will be performed and compared to the results of a PSIPave3D design as a verification.The result of this research will be a pavement design tool which will be applicable across Canada and will provide pavement designers with meaningful mechanistic analysis of their pavements.