30 May, 2006

Rammohan Reddy
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
India

Subject: Official Invitation to attend the Tenth East Asia-Pacific Conference on

Structural Engineering and Construction (EASEC-10) 3-5 August, 2006
Bangkok, Thailand

Dear Sir,

We are pleased to inform you that your paper number SM-AU-0377, titled “Prediction of
Temperature Profile in An Asphalt Concrete Pavement” has been accepted for presentation in
The Tenth East Asia-Pacific Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction (EASEC-10)
to be held on 3-5 August, 2006, Bangkok, Thailand.

You are kindly invited to attend this important International Conference and present your paper so
it can be included in the official Proceedings.

The paper has been peer-reviewed and according to the reviewers recommendation some
modifications need to be made in the paper as listed in the attached report. Kindly make the
appropriate changes and send the revised paper before June 15, 2006.

Kindly send us the Copyright Transfer Form and the Registration Form on or before June 15 to be
qualified for early bird registration. Kindly make the hotel reservation as well at Holiday Inn
Bangkok / InterContinental Bangkok.

Please note that all papers published in the Proceedings are peer-reviewed and refereed. The
refereeing process involved external assessment by an expert board with board national and
international representation.

Please feel free to contact us for any other assistance or information that you might need.

Look forward to seeing you at the conference.

Sincerely yours,

Naveed Anwar, Dr.

Executive Secretary, EASEC-10
Email: nanwar@ait.ac.th
 PREDICTION OF TEMPERATURE PROFILE IN AN ASPHALT CONCRETE
PAVEMENT

Rammohan REDDY 1 , S. NAGAREDDAYYA 2 , J. Murali KRISHNAN 3 , B. Sivarama

SARMA 4
ABSTRACT: Since asphalt concrete properties are influenced very much by even small changes in
temperature, it is necessary to predict the temperature distribution within an asphalt concrete structural
layer. For instance, at very low temperature, especially at night time, it is possible for the pavement to
respond like an elastic solid. At high temperature (day time), the same pavement can exhibit response
similar to that of a viscoelastic fluid. Considering the fact that there is a temperature gradient within
the pavement structure, it is possible for the upper surface of the structure to exhibit viscoelastic
response while the lower surface to exhibit elastic response. This makes the analysis of the structure
extremely complicated. In this investigation, the asphalt concrete layer is modeled as a semi-infinite
solid in contact with air having a temperature varying as a harmonic function of time. The resulting
analytical solutions are simulated for typical initial conditions. To verify the veracity of the analytical
solutions, actual pavement temperature data was measured from a test stretch of asphalt concrete
pavement. Temperature probes were inserted at specific locations and the temperature was measured.
The analytical solution corroborated fairly with the experimental predictions.

KEYWORDS: Asphalt concrete, Flexible pavements, Temperature distribution, Visco-elasticity, Heat

conduction.

1. INTRODUCTION

More than ninety percent of the world’s highways and runways are constructed with asphalt concrete
as the main structural layer. Asphalt concrete exhibits viscoelastic response at normal temperatures
and the material properties are tremendously influenced by temperature. To accurately determine the
stress-strain response and hence the load carrying capacity of the pavements, it is necessary to predict
the temperature distribution within the pavement. For instance, at very low temperature, especially at
night time, it is possible for the pavement to respond like an elastic solid. At high temperature (day
time), the same pavement can exhibit response similar to that of a viscoelastic fluid. Considering the
fact that there is a temperature gradient within the pavement structure, it is also possible for the top
layers (influenced by direct contact to the atmosphere) of the structure to exhibit viscoelastic response
while the lower layers to exhibit elastic response. This makes the analysis of the structure extremely
complicated. The maximum pavement temperature and its distribution is also a major input for picking
appropriate asphalt type and grade to be used. For instance, it will be of interest to investigate the
suitability or otherwise of a particular grade of bitumen in an asphalt concrete structure for the high
and low temperature that the structure is likely to be subjected to.

Detailed investigations related to the temperature distribution in asphalt pavements have been
conducted in the past. Barber [1] conducted one of the earliest investigations on the temperature

1
Under-Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
2
Senior Engineer, Engineering Design and Research Center, Larsen and Toubro Limited, India,
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
4
Head, Research and Development, Engineering Design and Research Center, Larsen and Toubro Limited, India

1
distribution in asphalt pavements from weather reports. Some of the significant investigations in
measurement and calculation of temperature profile include Kallas [2], Straub et al.,[3], Rumney and
Jimenez [4], Solaimanian and Kennedy [5], Bosscher et al., [6] and very recently Yavuzturk et al., [7].
While these studies have been carried out mostly in Europe and North America, no noteworthy
attempt has been made in the literature in Asia except for the lone investigation by Venkataraman and
Venkatasubramanian in 1977 [8]. Considering the significant strides in creation of transportation
structures that are currently being initiated in Asian countries, it is urgently required to carry out
similar investigations here. These attempts will also help one to have a re-look at the manner in which
weather prediction models have been developed in North America and Europe and address the lacunae
in most of them. For instance, number of statistical and probabilistic methods dealing with the
prediction of pavement temperatures was developed based on weather and pavement data collected
through the Long-Term Pavement Performance Program (LTPP) under SHRP of USA. However the
results obtained through these were not satisfactory as they tend to underestimate the maximum
temperature and overestimate the minimum temperatures. The investigation reported consists of
preliminary results in weather prediction methodology. It is hoped that robust tools will be developed
at the end of this investigation giving rise to useful weather prediction models for subsequent use in
binder selection models, stress analysis of asphalt structures, distress prediction models etc.

In the following, the modeling of asphalt concrete pavement as semi-infinite solid is described. The
choices of appropriate material parameters necessary in the analytical solution are described. An
experimental program of actual temperature data collection from an asphalt pavement is detailed next
and finally comparison of the field data with the actual pavement temperature is shown for some
specific dates.

2. THEORY

It is assumed that the asphalt concrete pavement is a semi-infinite solid obeying the equation of linear
flow of heat given as,
! 2T 1 !T
" 0, (1)
! x 2 a !t
where T=temperature, a =thermal diffusivity of the material, x =spatial coordinate and t =time.
Here it is also assumed that the thermal properties are independent of position and temperature. If the
surface temperature in the semi-infinite solid, x >, 0 is given by T = A cos( wt - e ) , it can be shown
that the body temperature is given by [9],

T = A e- kx cos( wt - kx - e ), (2)

1
( w %2
where. k ' $ . Here w is frequency of the temperature cycle, k = conductivity, BTU per sq ft per
& 2c #
k
hour, 0 C per ft, c = diffusivity, sq ft per hour given as , where s = specific heat, BTU per Pound 0 C ;
sr
r = density, pounds per cu ft and ) = lag in the temperature cycle. Similarly, for a semi-infinite mass, x
> 0, with surface temperature T = TM + TV sin( wt - e ) , the temperature is given by the following
equation [1],

H e " xC ( C %
T TM , TV sin 'w*t " e + " xC " arc tan $ (3)
*H , C + 2
,C 2 & H ,C#

2
Here T = temperature of mass, 0 C , TM = mean effective air temperature, 0 C , TV = maximum variation
in temperature from mean, 0 C , H= h/k and h =surface coefficient, BTU per sq ft per hour, 0 C and
C = 0.131 per c .

In this investigation, it is considered that the temperature cycle with a time period of 24 hours for
simulating the diurnal temperature cycle. It is also assumed that the pavement surface temperature and
the ambient air temperature follow the same pattern with a lag. Investigations conducted on the relation
between pavement and air temperature have found that during the night time, when the air temperature
reaches the lowest temperature for a specific day, the pavement surface temperature reaches a much
colder temperature while the bottom layer of the pavement is warmer than the surface temperature and
the air temperature. During the day time, the situation is reversed and the pavement surface temperature
experiences higher temperature than the air temperature with the pavement bottom temperature
experiencing much colder temperature regime [5]. Considering the fact that this investigation was aimed
at eliciting the maximum pavement temperature, half of the daily temperature range corresponding to
day time temperature was only necessary and hence the ambient air temperature was approximated by
the following function,

Ta = Tma + Tva sin( wt - e ) . (4)

Here Tma is the mean air temperature and Tva is the half of the daily temperature range. If one is
interested in estimating the minimum temperature, a different form is required. It is now required to
estimate the value of the parameter ) so that the above equation (4) can fit the actual air temperature as
close as possible. This step is necessary to use equation (3) for estimating the pavement temperature
from the air temperature. From the analysis of the data available for the city of Chennai, India [11], it
was found that a value of ) = 8.5 captured the day time trend in the temperature very well. Sample air
temperature data along with the approximated data is shown for February 14, 2006 in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Air temperature for Chennai, India on February 14, 2006

The net rate of heat flow to and from a body is influenced by several factors. In the case of an asphalt
pavement where it is desired to estimate the increase in temperature due to direct solar radiation, factors
such as diffuse radiation, terrestrial radiation, convection, conduction and outgoing radiation are required
to be considered. While direct solar radiation, diffuse radiation and terrestrial radiation are positive, the
outgoing radiation is negative when considering the net rate of heat flow to the body [5]. In this

3
investigation, a very simple approach due to Barber [1] was adapted. Assuming forced convection
3
including average re-radiation, the surface coefficient is taken to be h = 1.3 + 0.62 v 4 [1]. Here v is the
average wind velocity in mph. Also, considering the fact the surface also receives heat by direct solar
radiation, the effective air temperature is higher than the ambient air temperature during the day time and
for the correct solution of equation (2) , it is necessary to use appropriate values for TM and Tv corrected
as follows[1];

TM = Tma + R (5)

and

TV = Tva + IR. (6)

2 2 bI /
Here, R where, b = absorptivity of surface to solar radiation; and I =solar radiation, BTU per
3 01 h -.
sq ft hour. From the literature [1, 7], the following values are taken for the various parameters: b =0.95
for black surface, k =0.7, s=0.22 and w =140. It is to be pointed out that the approach followed here is
very simple in nature and can give asphalt pavement temperature distribution without recourse to any
complex numerical procedures. Considering the fact that most of the Asian countries do not have
weather databases that exist in North America as part of their long term pavement performance, simple
models like this can give an idea of temperature distribution just based on weather reports.

3. COLLECTION OF FIELD PAVEMENT TEMPERATURE DATA

An existing asphalt concrete pavement is used for the study. The pavement is located in the city of
Chennai, India. The site for the collection of pavement temperature is so chosen that it is devoid of any
obstruction of wind and solar radiation. A temperature probe was inserted at a depth of 40 mm from the
surface in a 10 cm by 10 cm cut section (figure 2).

Figure 2. Temperature probe at a depth of 40 mm Figure 3. Final setup

The probe was covered with the asphalt concrete and the final setup for data collection is as shown in
Figure 3. Pavement temperatures at a depth of 40mm from the surface is measured from IST 8:30 AM to
7:00 PM at an interval of 30 minutes for 5 continuous days from February 14th 2006 to Feb 18th 2006.

4
4. VALIDATION OF THE MODEL

Hourly air temperatures and wind velocities from 14th February 2006 to 18th February 2006 were
collected [11]. The solar radiation values were taken as the average of the radiation values of that
particular day from 1991 to 2000 based on the weather database provided by the Indian Metrological
Department, Pune, India. One of the factors in the above model that is required to be fine tuned is
related to how much of the deviation from the average given in equation 6. For instance, in the
investigation conducted by Barber [1], this was taken as a sine wave with half amplitude of 3R. This
assumption helped in providing a very small deviation from the observed and predicted values. In this
investigation, this parameter was fixed by varying the value of I in equation 6 from 1.5 to 3. Three days
of data from 14th February 2006 to 16th February 2006 was used for finding the optimum value of I that
will result in the least root mean square error between predicted and measured values. It was observed
that for values of I=2, the predicted values from equation (3) with TV = Tva + 2 R resulted in minimum
error. Figure 4 and 5 show the predicted values of the model with the measured values for 17th February
2006 and 18th February 2006.

Figure 4. Comparison of calculated and field pavement temperatures for Feb 17th 2006.

Figure 5. Comparison of calculated and field pavement temperatures for Feb 18th 2006.

5
5. CONCLUSIONS

Measurement of pavement temperature is an important step in the implementation of mechanistic

pavement design procedures. Considering the fact that no automated weather data collection procedures
exist currently in India and in most of the Southeast Asian countries, this investigation re-looked at a
classical yet simple technique for pavement temperature prediction. However, for robust analysis of
temperature distribution of pavement structures, the balance of energy at the surface along with the two-
dimensional heat transfer equation is required to be solved. The thermal properties of the different
asphalt mixtures are also required to be measured. This is a part of an ongoing investigation in which
different temperature prediction algorithm are investigated for their suitability for Indian conditions.

6. REFERENCES

1. Barber, E.S., “Calculation of maximum pavement temperatures from weather reports”, Highway
Research Board Bulletin, 168, 1957, pp.1-8.
2. Kallas, B. F., “Asphalt pavement temperature”, Highway Research Record, 150, 1966, pp.1-11.
3. Straub, A.L., Schenck, H.N. and Przybycien, F.E., “Bituminous pavement temperature related to
climate”, Highway Research Record, 256, 1968, pp.53-77.
4. Rumney, T. N. and Jimenez, R. A., “Pavement temperatures in the southwest”, Highway Research
Record, 361, 1971, pp.1-13.
5. Solaimanian, M. and Kennedy, T. W., “Predicting maximum pavement surface temperature using
maximum air temperature and hourly solar radiation”, Transportation Research Record, 1417,
1993, pp.1-11.
6. Bosscher, P.J., Bahia, H. U., Thomas, S. and Russell, J. S., “Relationship between pavement
temperature and weather data – Wisconsin field study to verify Superpave algorithm”,
Transportation Research Record, 1609, 1998, pp.1-11.
7. Yavuzturk, C., Ksaibati, K., and Chiasson, A.D., “Assessment of temperature fluctuations in
asphalt pavements due to thermal environmental conditions using a two-dimensional, Transient
finite-difference approach”, ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 17(4), 2005, pp.
465-475.
8. Venkataraman, T. S., and Venkatasubramanian, V., “Temperature studies on bituminous
pavements in tropics”, Australian Road Research, 7(1), 1977, 32-37.
9. Carslaw, H.S. and Jaeger, J.C., “Conduction of Heat in Solids,” Oxford Press, 1959.
10. Kavianipour, A. and Beck, J.V., “Thermal property estimation utilizing the laplace transform with
application to asphalt pavement”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 20, 1977,
259-267.
11. http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/VOMM/2006/2/14/DailyHistory.html?req_city=N
A&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA, (Accessed on 4th March, 2006)