Development of degradation model for urban asphalt pavement

There is a lack of a profound understanding of urban pavement deterioration pattern. This is due to the complexity of traffic conditions and the variety of pavement structures in urban roads. The lack of a suitable deterioration model for the urban pavements limits the possibility of making any scientific and cost-effective repair and maintenance strategy. There is a need for a better understanding of the long-term behaviour of urban pavements by which predictive pavement condition models can be derived and consequently a suitable maintenance management system can be built. In response to this need, a comprehensive field study was performed in three Iranian cosmopolitan cities. Pervasive pavement damages were defined and an urban pavement condition index was established. A deterioration model was developed by monitoring and analysing the conditions of road pavements in a period of four years. This model varies as the structural and loading conditions of the pavement change. The efficiency and practicability of the model in predicting the conditions of the pavements were illustrated.