ABSTRACT
This study investigates the impact of the laboratory compaction-based HMA stiffness on the pavement response compared to the actual field pavement performance. The most commonly used laboratory compaction methods, namely Marshall, gyratory and roller, were used to fabricate asphalt specimens of various HMA types and the corresponding stiffness properties were assessed to be incorporated as input in numerical analyses. A typical flexible pavement structure was analyzed using a 2-D Finite Element axisymmetric model and the results demonstrated that the prediction of field pavement response is sensitive to the HMA moduli as a function of the laboratory compaction method. The comparative evaluation between the laboratory compaction methods indicated that the prediction accuracy of the as-built pavement response is considered acceptable when adopting the roller compaction method for characterizing the stiffness properties of the used HMA materials.
