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Federal Highway Administration / Publications / Focus / October 2002

Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations

Publication Number: FHWA-RD-02-015
Date: October 2002

Winners of LTPP Data Analysis Contest Announced

From facilitating the design process for new and rehabilitated pavements to teaching pavement analysis and design, the many resources of the Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database were put to valuable use by participants in the Third International Contest on LTPP Data Analysis. Cosponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the contest was designed to encourage the use of the LTPP database for research, class projects, and Master's and Doctoral theses.

The contest offered four categories:

Submissions were received in two categories, Graduate and Curriculum. The papers were evaluated using the following criteria:

This year's winners received cash prizes.

The Graduate category had two First Place winners, Hassan M. Aly Salem of the University of Idaho and Yuhong Wang of the University of Kentucky. Using DataPave 3.0 software, Salem quantified the effects of subgrade moisture variations on the subgrade's resilient modulus. These effects can then be used to facilitate the design process for new and rehabilitated pavements. Wang's paper describes how to develop a climate map using cluster analysis of performance-related climate data from the LTPP database. The paper also uses LTPP data to study the quantitative relationship between climate and pavement performance.

The Graduate category also produced two Second Place winners, Shameem A. Dewan and Mohammed Zulyaminayn, both of Texas A&M University. Dewan's paper explains how to transform LTPP distress data as input for California's Metropolitan Transportation Commission Pavement Management System software. Zulyaminayn's paper describes his use of LTPP data to help develop a Visual Basic computer program for adjustment of the family performance curves in predicting individual pavement section performance. This computer program predicts distress conditions for a 5-year span and the remaining service life of individual pavement sections.

Third place in the Graduate category was awarded to Christopher M. Raymond of the University of Waterloo in Canada. Using LTPP data, Raymond's paper examines the effect of four factors on the as-built roughness of a pavement. These factors are the extent of surface preparation prior to resurfacing, overlay thickness, type of overlay material, and pavement roughness prior to resurfacing. Raymond validated his study's results using data from the Canadian LTPP program.

First Place in the Curriculum category was awarded to Neeraj Buch and Karim Chatti of Michigan State University. Their paper demonstrates the incorporation of the LTPP database in a curriculum for an undergraduate course on pavement rehabilitation and a graduate course on pavement analysis and design. The design examples illustrate the use of LTPP data in computing pavement responses, predicting traffic levels, developing rehabilitation strategies, and predicting pavement performance for both rigid and flexible pavements.

For more information on the LTPP contest results, contact Verna Jameson at ASCE, 703-295-6199 (fax: 703-295-6132; email: vjameson@asce.org), or visit the FHWA Web site.

More information on using the LTPP database: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/ltpp/getdata.cfm.

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Updated: 06/27/2017
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