Pavement management is one of the primary responsibilities for departments of transportation and other municipalities across the country. Efficient and proper use of taxpayer dollars to preserve and improve the existing transportation system has never been more important due to the current fiscal environment. Agencies use pavement management systems to store data describing the state of the network. This information is often used to help make decisions regarding the location of pavement preservation actions. There is often a discrepancy between the need estimates of network-level pavement management systems and where and how pavement preservation and improvement dollars are actually spent (i.e., actual pavement preservation and improvement projects). This research focuses on evaluating the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Pavement Management Information System (PMIS) to assess the agreement between its need estimates and actual construction projects at the district level. The research revealed there is little agreement between the output of PMIS’s Needs Estimate tool and actual construction projects. Possible reasons for this disagreement include the inability of PMIS’s Needs Estimates to consider the decision makers preferences and priorities, and also its inability to consider multiple years of condition data simultaneously. Through the use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the research was able to capture the effect of several variables on the decision making process. Using this method, pavement project suggestions were created that more closely matched actual projects than what the current Needs Estimate tool suggests. The projects selected using the new method were then tested against actual construction within three counties of the Bryan district. The new method closely matches actual preservation decisions made by the district within these three counties.

Τα συστήματα διαχείρισης οδοστρωμάτων χρησιμοποιούνται ευρύτατα από τους φορείς οδοποιίας και συνεχώς βελτιώνονται επειδή μπορούν να οδηγήσουν σε σημαντική εξοικονόμηση κεφαλαίου και σε υψηλά επίπεδα εξυπηρέτησης του οδικού δικτύου. Στόχος τους είναι η αξιολόγηση των αποφάσεων συντήρησης και διαχείρισης των οδοστρωμάτων για την αποτελεσματική κατανομή των περιορισμένων διαθέσιμων πόρων. Τα σύγχρονα συστήματα που έχουν αναπτυχθεί χρησιμοποιούν μεθόδους τεχνητής νοημοσύνης για την επίλυση του προβλήματος αφού αποτελούν ισχυρά εργαλεία βελτιστοποίησης με μεγάλες υπολογιστικές ικανότητες. Η πλειοψηφία των συστημάτων που έχουν δημιουργηθεί εντοπίζει τη βέλτιστη λύση που ελαχιστοποιεί το κόστος συντήρησης χωρίς να λαμβάνεται υπόψη το αντίκτυπο της επιδείνωσης της κατάστασης του οδοστρώματος στο χρήστη και στο περιβάλλον. Ωστόσο, τα σύγχρονα οδικά έργα είναι αναγκαίο να χαρακτηρίζονται από βιωσιμότητα που απαιτεί την ελαχιστοποίηση των αρνητικών επιπτώσεων που οφείλονται στην κατάσταση του οδοστρώματος. Στόχος της παρούσας μεταπτυχιακής εργασίας είναι η ανάπτυξη ενός συστήματος διαχείρισης οδοστρωμάτων το οποίο αποσκοπεί στην παροχή υποστήριξης αποφάσεων για τις κατάλληλες στρατηγικές συντήρησης ώστε να εξασφαλιστούν αποδεκτά επίπεδα ασφάλειας και λειτουργικότητας του δικτύου των αυτοκινητοδρόμων στη διάρκεια του χρόνου καθώς και μείωση των περιβαλλοντικών επιπτώσεων. Το μοντέλο που παρουσιάζεται δεν περιορίζεται μόνο στο κόστος συντήρησης, όπως οι περισσότερες μελέτες, αλλά επικεντρώνεται στο γενικευμένο κόστος που περιλαμβάνει το κόστος συντήρησης, το κόστος χρήστη και το περιβαλλοντικό κόστος. Το κόστος χρήστη αποτελείται από το κόστος λειτουργίας οχήματος, το κόστος μετακίνησης και το κόστος ατυχημάτων. Το κόστος του περιβάλλοντος συνίσταται από το κόστος εκπομπής των αέριων ρύπων, το κόστος θορύβου και το κόστος στην οικονομική, κοινωνική και πολιτική ζωή. Τα δεδομένα του προβλήματος σχετίζονται με την αρχική κατάσταση των οδοστρωμάτων που πρόκειται να συντηρηθούν, το είδος και τα χαρακτηριστικά της οδού, το είδος και τα χαρακτηριστικά των οχημάτων, τα διαθέσιμα είδη συντήρησης και το ύψος της χρηματοδότησης. Εξαιτίας του μεγέθους και της πολυπλοκότητας του προβλήματος, η βελτιστοποίηση πραγματοποιήθηκε με την εφαρμογή ενός γενετικού αλγορίθμου που έχει τη δυνατότητα να εξετάσει πλήθος οδικών τμημάτων αναζητώντας ένα ευρύ φάσμα πιθανών λύσεων μέσα σε ένα εύλογο χρονικό διάστημα υπολογισμού. Ο αλγόριθμος καταφέρνει να εντοπίζει τον κατάλληλο συνδυασμό συντηρήσεων ώστε το γενικευμένο κόστος να ελαχιστοποιείται ενώ ταυτόχρονα το οδόστρωμα να διατηρείται σε καλή κατάσταση. Για την αξιολόγηση του μοντέλου ερευνήθηκαν πολλές διαφορετικές περιπτώσεις ενώ στο τέλος σχεδιάστηκε η καμπύλη Pareto. Τα αποτελέσματα απέδειξαν ότι το προτεινόμενο σύστημα μπορεί να βοηθήσει αποτελεσματικά στη διατήρηση των οδοστρωμάτων σε ικανοποιητικά επίπεδα λειτουργικότητας και κόστους μέσω των αποφάσεων συντήρησης που προτείνει. / Pavement management systems are widely used by road agencies and are improved continuously as they can lead to money savings and high levels of road services. The aim is to provide assistance to decision makers for selecting optimum strategies in the design, evaluation, and maintenance of pavements in order to maintain them in serviceable condition over a given period of time for the least cost. Nowadays, the developed systems use artificial intelligent methods to solve the problem which are powerful optimization tools with large computational abilities. The majority of pavement management systems detect the optimal solution that minimizes the maintenance cost without considering the impact of pavement deterioration in the user and the environment. However, they should be characterized by sustainability that requires an efficient use of resources and sensitivity to environmental and social constraints. In this paper, an optimisation model is developed that aims to provide decision support to engineers in developing appropriate pavement maintenance strategies to ensure acceptable levels of safety and functionalism of the highway network in time as well as reduction of environmental impacts. The model supersedes previous ones in considering the generalised cost, which includes the agency cost, the user cost, and the environmental impacts, as the main decision parameter. The user cost consists of three main components, the vehicle operation cost, the travel cost and the accident cost. The environmental cost consists of the air pollution cost and the noise cost. The input data are related to the initial pavement condition, the type and characteristics of the road, the type and characteristics of vehicles, the maintenance types and the budget limit. Due to the problem size and complexity, the optimisation is done with the employment of a genetic algorithm which can handle a large number of road sections, search a wide range of possible solutions, and reach a solution within reasonable computation time. The genetic algorithm can find the appropriate maintenance types in order to minimize the generalized cost while the pavement is kept in good condition. The model has been evaluated with several test cases and Pareto curves have been developed. The results indicate that the proposed model can effectively assist pavement preservation and management decisions in highway networks.

Planning road maintenance and development activities, prioritizing road construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation works, performing project economic evaluations, forecasting road operation expenditures and road user effect always requires prediction of pavement behaviour. For this purpose models of pavement deterioration are used. Commonly they are integrated in more sophisticated computational systems, known as Pavement Management systems (PMS) and Highway Development and Management systems (HDM). The implementation of these systems started in Lithuania shortly after the Re-establishment of the Independence. This was triggered by the violent drop in financing of the road sector, forcing to change obsolete road management strategy and planning approach. The need for project economic evaluations, transport modelling and long term pavement performance forecasts grew up after Lithuania joined the European Union and this brought the opportunity for financing road infrastructure projects from the EU funds. At present only on the Lithuanian state road network the total value of implemented projects, justified by evaluations and modelling with PMS, amounts to about 500 million Litas annually. Any Pavement Management System is just as good as the models within it, used for pavement deterioration prediction. The performed test calculations show that prediction models, currently used for this purpose in PMS we have in Lithuania, are of doubtful accuracy and have to be improved.

Pavement Management Systems (PMS) are widely used by transportation agencies to maintain safe, durable and economic road networks. PMS prioritize the maintenance and rehabilitation of pavement sections by evaluating pavement performance at the network level. There are many PMS software packages that have been developed over the past decades for provincial/state road agencies. However, sometimes due to lack of budget and experience, adopting the existing PMS for a road agency is not cost effective. Thus, it is important to introduce a simple, effective, and affordable PMS for a local agency and municipality. This research is carried out in partnership between the City of Markham and the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT) located at the University of Waterloo. For the purpose of developing a PMS for local agencies, an extensive literature review on PMS components was carried out, with emphasizing data inventory, data collection, and performance evaluation. In addition, the literature review also concentrated on the overall pavement condition assessment. In July 2011, a study on “Evaluation of Pavement Distress Measurement Survey” was conducted as a part of this research and was distributed to cities and municipalities across Canada. The study focused on the current state-of-the-practice in pavement distress and condition evaluation methods used by local agencies to compare the results from the literature review. The components of the proposed PMS framework are also developed based on the literature review with some modifications and technical requirements. The City of Markham is selected as a case study, since it represents a local agency and provides all the data, to illustrate the validation of the proposed PMS framework.

A aderência pneu-pavimento é um dos parâmetros mais importantes da segurança viária e deve ser avaliada em duas escalas: microtextura e macrotextura. As medidas de textura da superfície de pavimentos podem ser obtidas por diversos equipamentos, sendo que os mais difundidos são o Pêndulo Britânico e a Mancha de Areia. Dessa forma, esta pesquisa pretende utilizar esses dois equipamentos para verificar o comportamento da textura em função do tempo/tráfego para diferentes tipos de revestimentos. Para tanto, foram realizados levantamentos dos valores de micro e macrotextura em pavimentos da rodovia BR-290/RS, trecho Osório-Porto Alegre, com uma freqüência aproximadamente mensal durante um período inferior a um ano. Com base nos dados coletados, foi possível desenvolver tendências de desempenho da micro e macrotextura para pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos dessa rodovia. Os modelos propostos para a estimativa da textura podem ser usados como ferramentas auxiliares no Sistema de Gerência de Pavimentos (SGP), prevendo o momento oportuno para intervenções na superfície dos pavimentos de modo a garantir a segurança dos usuários. Após a análise dos resultados, constatou-se que, no geral, os pontos de monitoração da rodovia BR- 290/RS apresentam boas condições de aderência pneu-pavimento quando avaliados pelo International Friction Index (IFI), que é um índice representativo da combinação entre a macro e microtextura do pavimento. Além dos modelos para estimativa da textura, desenvolveu-se nesta pesquisa um modelo de correlação entre os resultados dos ensaios de Mancha de Areia e de Drenabilidade, possibilitando, assim, a estimativa do IFI através do valor da vazão de água na superfície do pavimento. / Tire-road friction is one of the most important parameters regarding the safety of vehicles under slippery road conditions. Road surface texture is currently evaluated using several devices. In Brazil, the British Pendulum and the sand-patch method are most frequently used to measure microtexture and macrotexture, respectively. They were used in the research reported in this dissertation that aimed at verifying texture evolution with time/traffic on different types of pavement wearing courses. Thus, micro and macrotexture values were monthly measured in surveys carried out during one year in Brazilian Federal Road BR- 290/RS. Collected data allowed defining performance trends regarding micro and macrotexture of asphalt and Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements. The models here proposed might be used as auxiliary tools in Pavement Management Systems (PMS) to estimate the time when a given rehabilitation action is necessary to assure vehicle and drivers safety. Results analysis showed that the surveyed pavements present adequate tire-road friction, when evaluated by the International Friction Index (IFI) which combines pavements macro and microtexture. In addition, a model relating results of the sand-patch method to drainability results is proposed. Such model allows the estimation of the IFI based on values of water inflow through the pavements wearing courses.

Os modelos de previsão de desempenho são ferramentas fundamentais em um Sistema de Gerência de Pavimentos. Embora de grande importância, especificamente no Brasil, tem-se dado pouca atenção para a calibração e validação desses modelos. Acaba-se adotando modelos genéricos, obtidos em condições totalmente diferentes das existentes na malha administrada. Para uma gerência correta dos pavimentos de uma rodovia, torna-se fundamental a definição de modelos representativos das condições estruturais e funcionais dos pavimentos administrados. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo avaliar o desempenho de uma estrutura de pavimento flexível da rodovia BR-290/RS, desenvolvendo, a partir dessa avaliação, modelos que representem a tendência do comportamento do pavimento. A rodovia BR-290/RS está, no trecho entre as cidades de Osório e Porto Alegre, sob concessão da Concessionária da Rodovia Osório - Porto Alegre S/A - Concepa, desde o ano de 1997. Uma das principais ações a serem realizadas pela concessionária no período em que este trecho da rodovia está sob sua administração é a execução do alargamento das pistas da mesma, com a construção de uma nova estrutura de pavimento junto à plataforma existente, sendo essa a estrutura de pavimento analisada nesta pesquisa. A estrutura contempla 8cm de revestimento asfáltico, 15cm de base, 30cm de sub-base e 60cm de camada de reforço. Os pavimentos inseridos na análise foram construídos entre os anos 2000 e 2007. Para atingir o objetivo da pesquisa, foram reunidas informações obtidas em levantamentos de deflexões, irregularidade longitudinal e afundamento de trilha de roda realizados nos últimos anos. As deflexões foram determinadas em levantamento com o equipamento FWD ocorrido em 2007. A irregularidade longitudinal e o afundamento de trilha de roda foram obtidos simultaneamente em levantamentos com o perfilômetro a laser nos anos 2005, 2006 e 2007. De posse dessas informações, analisou-se o comportamento de tais parâmetros com a ação do tráfego, desenvolvendo tendências de desempenho para a estrutura. Na análise considerou-se a influência das intervenções ocorridas nos pavimentos após a sua construção, bem como diferentes procedimentos adotados nos levantamentos realizados. Em relação às intervenções, verificou-se que, para a estrutura e dados do estudo, elas foram influentes apenas na evolução da irregularidade longitudinal. Análises estatísticas foram efetuadas, de modo a definir o melhor ajuste para cada parâmetro. Após o desenvolvimento de tais tendências de comportamento do pavimento, as mesmas foram comparadas aos modelos de previsão de desempenho desenvolvidos em outras pesquisas. Para a irregularidade e o afundamento de trilha de roda, as tendências apresentadas neste estudo comportaram-se significativamente semelhantes as de outros modelos encontrados na bibliografia técnica. Por outro lado, para a tendência referente às deflexões, nenhum dos modelos desenvolvidos em estudos anteriores apresentou comportamento similar ao encontrado na pesquisa, evidenciando a importância do desenvolvimento de modelos particulares para cada rodovia e estrutura. / Pavement performance prediction models are important tools for pavement management systems. Despite its high importance, specifically in Brazil, little attention has been given to calibration and validation of such models. Generic models are eventually used, even international ones, obtained for rather different conditions of those valid for the managed network. Hence, it is vital for an appropriate road pavement management that representative models of the structural and functional conditions of the associated pavements are defined. This research aims to evaluate the behaviour of the performance of a flexible pavement section of the road BR-290/RS, developing from this assessment, models that are representative of the pavement behaviour tendency. The road BR-290/RS is located between the cities of Osório and Porto Alegre, under concession of Concessionária da Rodovia Osório - Porto Alegre S/A - Concepa, since the year of 1997. One of the main actions to be accomplished by the road concessionary within the period under its administration is the carriageway widening of this road with the construction of a new pavement structure alongside, being this structure the objective of study in this research. The structure consists of an asphaltic layer of 8cm, 15cm of base course, 30cm of sub-base and 60cm of a capping layer. The pavement segments included in the analysis were built between 2000 and 2007. To deliver the objectives of this research, data obtained in deflectometric test campaigns, longitudinal roughness and rutting testing campaigns were gathered. Deflections were assessed in the FWD test campaign of 2007. Longitudinal roughness and rutting were simultaneously obtained with a laser profilometer in tests carried out in the years of 2005, 2006 and 2007. With this data, the behaviour of these parameters were evaluated with the traffic evolution, allowing the development of behaviour tendencies of this structure performance to be derived. In the analysis, the influence of the interventions carried out in the pavement sections after its construction were taken into account, as well as different procedures adopted in the testing campaigns carried out. In regard to the interventions, it was observed that, for the data and structure object of this study, they only had effect in the longitudinal roughness evolution. Statistical analyses were carried out in order to define the best adjustment to each parameter. After the development of such tendencies on the pavement behaviour, they were compared to pavement performance prediction models developed in other researches. For both roughness and rutting, the tendencies presented in the study behaved significantly as the other models found in the technical literature. As to the tendencies regarding deflections, none of the models developed in previous studies evidenced similar behaviour to the one observed in this research, testifying the importance for the development of particular models for each road and structure.

O patrimônio de infraestrutura rodoviária brasileira através dos tempos está sobrevivendo com investimentos com grandeza de valor bem abaixo do que muitos outros países estão alocando. A questão de quanto investir em infraestrutura de transportes depende de múltiplas variáveis como a situação política e econômica do país, a característica da frota, sua dimensão territorial, sua matriz, os tipos de pavimentos utilizados e as condições climáticas. Portanto, estimar um valor a ser empregado em manutenção rodoviária de forma recomendável, deve ser resultado dos estudos que envolvam essas variáveis, como elas interagem entre si e como esse investimento retorna para a sociedade. Diante de tantas áreas precárias, administrar recursos para a infraestrutura de transportes é um desafio a ser ainda vencido no Brasil. É engajada nesse desafio, que essa dissertação é composta por três artigos que abordam os principais assuntos: (i) avaliação da gestão da manutenção rodoviária no Brasil, quanto a sua abrangência, investimentos e as experiências internacionais; (ii) os conceitos e etapas de um SGP (Sistema de Gerência de Pavimentos) e a sua importância no planejamento das intervenções de manutenção; (iii) aplicação prática com o software Highway Development and Management (HDM-4), avaliando os resultados econômicos com as variáveis International Roughness Index (IRI) e Volume Médio Diário (VDM) do tráfego iniciais de segmentos de uma rodovia federal, utilizando como alternativas de projeto programas usuais adotados pelos gestores da rodovia. A terceirização dos serviços de manutenção pelos departamentos rodoviários exige que tenham que planejar e administrar contratos de manutenção por pouco ou longo período. A aplicação prática do HDM-4 demonstra que, o planejamento, um componente de um SGP, deve ser considerado permanentemente pelos administradores públicos ou privados. A questão de quanto investir em manutenção nesse contexto depende de como se investiu em momento antecedente, tanto com os serviços de infraestrutura como nas etapas de inventário da malha, planejamento e elaboração de projetos. O sistema HDM-4 necessita de dados de entrada, tais como: características geométricas, mecânicas, dados históricos e de tráfego dos segmentos rodoviários; que devem ser preservados pelos gestores do sistema, de maneira que permita prever o desempenho do pavimento, os custos e benefícios para um período planejado. Durante a análise dos resultados de Valor Presente Líquido (VPL) com os IRI e VDM iniciais, verificouse que as maiores diferenças se encontravam nos segmentos com mesmo intervalo de IRI inicial mas com tráfego superior. As características da frota, seus custos operacionais bem como seus coeficientes de calibração devem ser considerados nas análises com o software HDM-4, visando uma boa gestão na manutenção rodoviária. Tendo em vista o fato do tráfego influenciar nos resultados e podendo alterar o planejamento da manutenção, se percebe como é importante o controle do gestor da rodovia nas cargas efetivas que estão sendo transportadas. / The patrimony of Brazilian highway infrastructure through the ages is surviving with investments of magnitude value well below of what many other countries are allocating. The question of how much to invest in transport infrastructure depends on multiple variables such as the political and economic situation of the country, the characteristic of the fleet, its territorial dimension, its matrix, the types of used pavements and weather conditions. Therefore, to estimate a value to be used in road maintenance of a recommended way should be the result of the studies involving these variables, how they interact and how this investment returns to society. In face of so many precarious areas, managing resources for transport infrastructure is a challenge yet to be overcome in Brazil. It is engaged in this challenge, that this thesis consists of three articles that discuss the main issues: (i) assess the management of road maintenance in Brazil, as its scope, investment and international experiences; (ii) the concepts and steps of a Pavement Management System (PMS) and its importance in the planning of maintenance operations; (iii) practical application with the software Highway Development and Management (HDM-4), evaluating the economic results with the variables International Roughness Index (IRI) and Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) of the initial traffic segments of a federal motorway, using as alternative project usual programs adopted by the highway managers. The outsourcing of the maintenance services by road departments requires that they have to plan and manage maintenance contracts for little or long period. The practical application of the HDM-4 shows that the planning, a component of the PMS should be considered permanently by public or private administrators. The question of how much to invest in maintenance in this context depends on how you invested in previous time, both with infrastructure services as with the inventory stages of the motorway network, planning and preparation of projects. The HDM-4 system requires input data, such as geometric and mechanical characteristics, historical data and traffic of road segments that should be preserved by system managers, in order to foresee the pavement performance, costs and benefits to a planned period. During the analysis of the results of Net Present Value (NPV) with the initial IRI and AADT, it was found that the greatest differences were in the same initial IRI segments range but with higher traffic. The fleet characteristics, their operating costs and their calibration coefficients should be considered in the analysis with the HDM-4 software, aiming at a good management in road maintenance. In view of the fact that traffic influences the results and can change the maintenance planning, one can perceive that the road manager control on actual loads being transported is important.

Os modelos de previsão de desempenho são ferramentas fundamentais em um Sistema de Gerência de Pavimentos. Embora de grande importância, especificamente no Brasil, tem-se dado pouca atenção para a calibração e validação desses modelos. Acaba-se adotando modelos genéricos, obtidos em condições totalmente diferentes das existentes na malha administrada. Para uma gerência correta dos pavimentos de uma rodovia, torna-se fundamental a definição de modelos representativos das condições estruturais e funcionais dos pavimentos administrados. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo avaliar o desempenho de uma estrutura de pavimento flexível da rodovia BR-290/RS, desenvolvendo, a partir dessa avaliação, modelos que representem a tendência do comportamento do pavimento. A rodovia BR-290/RS está, no trecho entre as cidades de Osório e Porto Alegre, sob concessão da Concessionária da Rodovia Osório - Porto Alegre S/A - Concepa, desde o ano de 1997. Uma das principais ações a serem realizadas pela concessionária no período em que este trecho da rodovia está sob sua administração é a execução do alargamento das pistas da mesma, com a construção de uma nova estrutura de pavimento junto à plataforma existente, sendo essa a estrutura de pavimento analisada nesta pesquisa. A estrutura contempla 8cm de revestimento asfáltico, 15cm de base, 30cm de sub-base e 60cm de camada de reforço. Os pavimentos inseridos na análise foram construídos entre os anos 2000 e 2007. Para atingir o objetivo da pesquisa, foram reunidas informações obtidas em levantamentos de deflexões, irregularidade longitudinal e afundamento de trilha de roda realizados nos últimos anos. As deflexões foram determinadas em levantamento com o equipamento FWD ocorrido em 2007. A irregularidade longitudinal e o afundamento de trilha de roda foram obtidos simultaneamente em levantamentos com o perfilômetro a laser nos anos 2005, 2006 e 2007. De posse dessas informações, analisou-se o comportamento de tais parâmetros com a ação do tráfego, desenvolvendo tendências de desempenho para a estrutura. Na análise considerou-se a influência das intervenções ocorridas nos pavimentos após a sua construção, bem como diferentes procedimentos adotados nos levantamentos realizados. Em relação às intervenções, verificou-se que, para a estrutura e dados do estudo, elas foram influentes apenas na evolução da irregularidade longitudinal. Análises estatísticas foram efetuadas, de modo a definir o melhor ajuste para cada parâmetro. Após o desenvolvimento de tais tendências de comportamento do pavimento, as mesmas foram comparadas aos modelos de previsão de desempenho desenvolvidos em outras pesquisas. Para a irregularidade e o afundamento de trilha de roda, as tendências apresentadas neste estudo comportaram-se significativamente semelhantes as de outros modelos encontrados na bibliografia técnica. Por outro lado, para a tendência referente às deflexões, nenhum dos modelos desenvolvidos em estudos anteriores apresentou comportamento similar ao encontrado na pesquisa, evidenciando a importância do desenvolvimento de modelos particulares para cada rodovia e estrutura. / Pavement performance prediction models are important tools for pavement management systems. Despite its high importance, specifically in Brazil, little attention has been given to calibration and validation of such models. Generic models are eventually used, even international ones, obtained for rather different conditions of those valid for the managed network. Hence, it is vital for an appropriate road pavement management that representative models of the structural and functional conditions of the associated pavements are defined. This research aims to evaluate the behaviour of the performance of a flexible pavement section of the road BR-290/RS, developing from this assessment, models that are representative of the pavement behaviour tendency. The road BR-290/RS is located between the cities of Osório and Porto Alegre, under concession of Concessionária da Rodovia Osório - Porto Alegre S/A - Concepa, since the year of 1997. One of the main actions to be accomplished by the road concessionary within the period under its administration is the carriageway widening of this road with the construction of a new pavement structure alongside, being this structure the objective of study in this research. The structure consists of an asphaltic layer of 8cm, 15cm of base course, 30cm of sub-base and 60cm of a capping layer. The pavement segments included in the analysis were built between 2000 and 2007. To deliver the objectives of this research, data obtained in deflectometric test campaigns, longitudinal roughness and rutting testing campaigns were gathered. Deflections were assessed in the FWD test campaign of 2007. Longitudinal roughness and rutting were simultaneously obtained with a laser profilometer in tests carried out in the years of 2005, 2006 and 2007. With this data, the behaviour of these parameters were evaluated with the traffic evolution, allowing the development of behaviour tendencies of this structure performance to be derived. In the analysis, the influence of the interventions carried out in the pavement sections after its construction were taken into account, as well as different procedures adopted in the testing campaigns carried out. In regard to the interventions, it was observed that, for the data and structure object of this study, they only had effect in the longitudinal roughness evolution. Statistical analyses were carried out in order to define the best adjustment to each parameter. After the development of such tendencies on the pavement behaviour, they were compared to pavement performance prediction models developed in other researches. For both roughness and rutting, the tendencies presented in the study behaved significantly as the other models found in the technical literature. As to the tendencies regarding deflections, none of the models developed in previous studies evidenced similar behaviour to the one observed in this research, testifying the importance for the development of particular models for each road and structure.

A aderência pneu-pavimento é um dos parâmetros mais importantes da segurança viária e deve ser avaliada em duas escalas: microtextura e macrotextura. As medidas de textura da superfície de pavimentos podem ser obtidas por diversos equipamentos, sendo que os mais difundidos são o Pêndulo Britânico e a Mancha de Areia. Dessa forma, esta pesquisa pretende utilizar esses dois equipamentos para verificar o comportamento da textura em função do tempo/tráfego para diferentes tipos de revestimentos. Para tanto, foram realizados levantamentos dos valores de micro e macrotextura em pavimentos da rodovia BR-290/RS, trecho Osório-Porto Alegre, com uma freqüência aproximadamente mensal durante um período inferior a um ano. Com base nos dados coletados, foi possível desenvolver tendências de desempenho da micro e macrotextura para pavimentos flexíveis e rígidos dessa rodovia. Os modelos propostos para a estimativa da textura podem ser usados como ferramentas auxiliares no Sistema de Gerência de Pavimentos (SGP), prevendo o momento oportuno para intervenções na superfície dos pavimentos de modo a garantir a segurança dos usuários. Após a análise dos resultados, constatou-se que, no geral, os pontos de monitoração da rodovia BR- 290/RS apresentam boas condições de aderência pneu-pavimento quando avaliados pelo International Friction Index (IFI), que é um índice representativo da combinação entre a macro e microtextura do pavimento. Além dos modelos para estimativa da textura, desenvolveu-se nesta pesquisa um modelo de correlação entre os resultados dos ensaios de Mancha de Areia e de Drenabilidade, possibilitando, assim, a estimativa do IFI através do valor da vazão de água na superfície do pavimento. / Tire-road friction is one of the most important parameters regarding the safety of vehicles under slippery road conditions. Road surface texture is currently evaluated using several devices. In Brazil, the British Pendulum and the sand-patch method are most frequently used to measure microtexture and macrotexture, respectively. They were used in the research reported in this dissertation that aimed at verifying texture evolution with time/traffic on different types of pavement wearing courses. Thus, micro and macrotexture values were monthly measured in surveys carried out during one year in Brazilian Federal Road BR- 290/RS. Collected data allowed defining performance trends regarding micro and macrotexture of asphalt and Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements. The models here proposed might be used as auxiliary tools in Pavement Management Systems (PMS) to estimate the time when a given rehabilitation action is necessary to assure vehicle and drivers safety. Results analysis showed that the surveyed pavements present adequate tire-road friction, when evaluated by the International Friction Index (IFI) which combines pavements macro and microtexture. In addition, a model relating results of the sand-patch method to drainability results is proposed. Such model allows the estimation of the IFI based on values of water inflow through the pavements wearing courses.

abstract: Road networks are valuable assets that deteriorate over time and need to be preserved to an acceptable service level. Pavement management systems and pavement condition assessment have been implemented widely to routinely evaluate the condition of the road network, and to make recommendations for maintenance and rehabilitation in due time and manner. The problem with current practices is that pavement evaluation requires qualified raters to carry out manual pavement condition surveys, which can be labor intensive and time consuming. Advances in computing capabilities, image processing and sensing technologies has permitted the development of vehicles equipped with such technologies to assess pavement condition. The problem with this is that the equipment is costly, and not all agencies can afford to purchase it. Recent researchers have developed smartphone applications to address this data collection problem, but only works in a restricted set up, or calibration is recommended. This dissertation developed a simple method to continually and accurately quantify pavement condition of an entire road network by using technologies already embedded in new cars, smart phones, and by randomly collecting data from a population of road users. The method includes the development of a Ride Quality Index (RQI), and a methodology for analyzing the data from multi-factor uncertainty. It also derived a methodology to use the collected data through smartphone sensing into a pavement management system. The proposed methodology was validated with field studies, and the use of Monte Carlo method to estimate RQI from different longitudinal profiles. The study suggested RQI thresholds for different road settings, and a minimum samples required for the analysis. The implementation of this approach could help agencies to continually monitor the road network condition at a minimal cost, thus saving millions of dollars compared to traditional condition surveys. This approach also has the potential to reliably assess pavement ride quality for very large networks in matter of days. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2018