Calibration of the roughness (IRI) progression model for asphalt pavements in HDM-4 to the chilean conditions

Abstract

The HDM-4 (Highway Development Management) model used for the economic and technical evaluation of roads must be adjusted to the specific conditions of a country or region where they are to be used. This work presents the results of the analysis that made possible the determination of the adjustment factors corresponding to the roughness model (IRI), and offers a comparison of these results to those obtained from the HDM-III (previous version of HDM-4) calibrated models for Chile. This analysis employed the "windows" methodology, which in essence allows the generation of a typical pavement’s performance curve, based on the deterioration data observed in pavements with different ages, from roads that have similar traffic levels, structural capacities and climatic conditions. This research confirms the utility of employing the "windows" methodology in calibrating pavement performance model projects. The HDM-4 calibration factors achieved on this study allowed researchers to minimize the estimated error of the predictions made for the studied cases. However, in cold climates, researchers detected inconsistencies in the HDM-4 software version 1.1 that would impede its immediate implementation. Finally, this study offers suggestions to those who may need to conduct similar calibration studies.