Design temperature

For the Classical Mechanistic-Empirical design method only one temperature is used. This design temperature should be the temperature at which all of the loads during one year would cause the same damage as the loads do with the actual temperature variation over the year. This temperature is also called the "Damage Weighted Mean Annual Temperature" or DWMAT.

The DWMAT will vary with the thickness and stiffness of the pavement layers and with the design criteria used for the different materials. In practice it is seldom possible to determine a single DWMAT for a given pavement structure in a specific climate zone. The DWMAT with respect to rutting could be quite different from the DWMAT with respect to cracking, for example.

In CalME default DWMATs are imported from the "Climate zone" table of the database, but these values may be changed by the user.