Examining Effects of Climatic Factors on Flexible Pavement Performance and Service Life

Abstract

The potential risk of climate change raises interest in how it may affect the deterioration rates of flexible pavements and how pavement service lives would be altered as a consequence. Previous studies demonstrated that temperature is the most influential environmental factor for the Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide. In this study, temperature factors, both the increase in average annual temperature and the seasonal variation in temperature, are examined through a sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity of the pavement performance to temperature as well as other environmental factors such as precipitation, wind speed, percent sunshine, and groundwater level is included as a comparison. This study concluded that temperature factors, both the increase in average annual temperature and the seasonal variation, are the most influential in pavement performance. Moreover, pavement service life may experience considerable reduction because of climate change in some regions if design is not adapted to the changed climate.