Top-Down Cracking, Getting Close to Beta Testing

Completed last year, the NCHRP project 1-52 top-down cracking report and accompanying software model were delivered to AASHTOWare earlier this year. Integration of the model into Pavement ME Design got rolling near the end of last year.

The integration of the NCHRP 1-52 model into Pavement ME Design is now complete and alpha testing is underway, which verifies the computational methodology. The work is still expected to be completed around October 2019.

The Pavement ME Design team will continue to advise the users on the expected schedule integration completion date and the time frame for beta testing. For those users concerned with recalibration of the bottom-up fatigue cracking transfer function associated with this enhancement, early analysis of the TDC software suggests the calibration of the bottom-up fatigue cracking transfer function will NOT be required.