Modeling Pavement Temperature for Use in Binder Oxidation Models and Pavement Performance Prediction

Abstract

The ability to accurately predict pavement temperature variation with time and depth is critical to calculating binder oxidation in pavements, understanding asphalt material behavior, and predicting pavement performance. In this work, an improved one-dimensional model, coupled with methods to obtain model-required climate data from available databases and optimization of site-specific pavement parameters was developed to calculate hourly pavement temperatures nationwide. Hourly solar radiation and daily average wind speed were obtained from existing databases. Hourly air temperatures were interpolated using a daily air temperature pattern developed from time-series analysis and commonly recorded daily maximum and minimum air temperatures. Parameter estimation identified three critical site-specific pavement parameters: the albedo, the difference between the emissivity and absorption coefficient, and the absorption coefficient. The values of these parameters, optimized at 29 pavement sites nationwide based on the average hourly absolute error objective function, appear to correlate with climatic patterns, suggesting that these parameters be interpolated based on climate. The temperature model, proposed data sources, and site-specific pavement parameters provided calculations that agreed well with experimental measurements.