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The most used rigid pavement throughout the United States is jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP), providing a service life of 30 years or more. JPCP is proven to be a cost-effective pavement system, providing long service life and other sustainability benefits. The structure of JPCP systems and other critical factors, such as material properties, traffic, and climate, impact the performance and serviceability of the JPCP. The analysis of impacts of all these design variables is necessary to understand the most critical factors affecting JPCP lifetime performance. The state-of-the-art pavement ME design (PMED) software evaluates the pavements' performance through the international roughness index (IRI), joint faulting, and transverse cracking. This study focuses on performing a sensitivity analysis of the design inputs used in PMED software on the predicted performance of JPCP systems. Simulations were performed using the PMED software version 2.6.2.1 for various JPCP design inputs that include pavement structure, mechanical and thermal properties of paving concrete, climate, and traffic. Variables assessed are coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), Portland cement concrete (PCC) slab thickness, slab width, slab length, friction loss, PCC shortwave absorptivity, PCC thermal conductivity, dowel diameter, PCC heat capacity, climate, and traffic. The data produced from the PMED software simulations is analyzed based on the JPCP performance indicators. Results on the IRI indicator analysis show CTE, PCC thickness, and climate to have the most impact. CTE, climate, and slab width hold the most impact on the joint faulting indicator. The transverse cracking indicator results present CTE, slab length, and friction loss exhibiting the most impact. It is evident from the sensitivity results that CTE of paving concrete holds the most influence among all three JPCP performance indicators.
McIntosh et al. (Thu,) studied this question.