Development of Pavement Temperature Contours for India

The stress-strain response of the bituminous pavements is highly sensitive to temperature. To systematically analyze the pavement performance, it is necessary that one understands the variation of pavement temperature spatially and temporally during the life time of a pavement. In this investigation, historic air temperature data for 37 locations across India was collected. Using this database, pavement temperature data was predicted by an appropriate air temperature-pavement temperature model. High and low temperature pavement temperature contours were generated for the first time for India. It was seen that the locations spanning from Srinagar to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to Orissa were extremely critical. The minimum temperature in these locations was \(-\)10 \(^{\mathrm {\circ }}\)C and the maximum temperature was around 68 \(^{\mathrm {\circ }}\)C. Clearly such information is necessary when making choice of binder grade and bituminous layer thickness.