Rational Selection of Factors of Safety in Reliability-Based Design of Flexible Pavements in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Explicit applications of reliability in pavement engineering have been of interest to pavement engineers for the last 10 years. Variabilities in parameters affecting pavement design performance result in variability in pavement performance prediction and thus affect the reliability of how long the pavement will last. Rational quantification of those variabilities is essential for incorporating reliability and selecting the proper factors of safety in the pavement design performance process. The prevailing methodology in Saudi Arabia of quantifying the variability in pavement performance due to the variabilities of the parameters affecting that performance is demonstrated. Factors of safety for flexible pavement design at various reliability levels and based on those prevailing variabilities are presented. These factors of safety are recommended for flexible pavement design in Saudi Arabia.

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