In order to predict the long-term rutting of asphalt pavement, the effective temperature for pavement rutting is calculated using the numerical simulation method. The transient temperature field of asphalt pavement was simulated based on actual meteorological data of Nanjing. 24-hour rutting development under a transient temperature field was calculated in each month. The rutting depth accumulated under the static temperature field was also estimated and the relationship between constant temperature parameters was analyzed. Then the effective temperature for pavement rutting was determined based on the rutting equivalence principle. The results show that the monthly effective temperature is above 40 t in July and August, while in June and September it ranges from 30 to 40 Rutting development can be ignored when the monthly effective temperature is less than 30 t. The yearly effective temperature for rutting in Nanjing is around 38. 5 t. The long-term rutting prediction model based on the effective temperature can reflect the influences of meteorological factors and traffic time distribution.
In order to compare the impact of thickness of different layers on fatigue lives of different semi-rigid asphalt pavement structures, the mechanical results from finite element models in ABAQUS are incorporated with the fatigue results from fatigue models in FE-SAFE to calculate the mechanical response and fatigue lives of semi-rigid pavement structures under heavy traffic loads. Then the influences on fatigue lives caused by the changes in the thickness of layers in pavement structures are also evaluated. The numerical simulation results show that the aggregated base and the large stone porous mixture （LSPM） base have better anti-cracking performance than the conventional semi-rigid base. The appropriate thickness range for the aggregated layer in the aggregated base is 15 to 18 cm. The thickness of the LSPM layer in the LSPM base is recommended to be less than 15 cm.
