RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF CHINA'S HIGHWAY CONCRETE PAVEMENT DESIGN PROCEDURE

Abstract

This paper presents the application of relia­ bility concepts to China's current highway con­crete pavement design procedure. The fatigue life of slab is assumed to follow two-parameter Weibull distribution and theoretical reliabil­ity formula is derived by using "interference theory". First-order approximation method is used to obtain the mean and variance of fatigue life from the means and variances of design parameters. Reliabilities are calculated at various traffic levels, variability levels, and slab thicknesses. Sensitivity analysis upon the results shows that pavement design reliability is significantly influenced by fac­tors such as traffic, concrete modulus of rup­ture, slab thickness, and level of material variability. A probabilistic design procedure is developed by introducing a reliability fac­ tor in the present design process.