A Systematic Approach of Field Calibration of Fatigue Equation for Asphalt Pavements

Fatigue failure due to trafic repetitions is an important consideration for design of asphalt pavement by Mechanistic-Empirical method. The fatigue equation used for this purpose is generally developed from laboratory study on asphalt mixes which is subsequently calibrated based on field performance of in-service pavements. A good calibration can predict the pavement life reliably. The present paper suggests a systematic approach of calibration using variable shift factor. It is shown that by this approach the prediction of pavement life is better than some of the other existing approaches. The reliability level is estimated when such calibrated fatigue equation is used in pavement design. Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database has been used in this study for illustration purpose.