{"id":27243,"date":"2026-02-07T18:02:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/?page_id=27243"},"modified":"2026-02-16T16:03:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T16:03:37","slug":"module-04-flexible-pavement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/?page_id=27243","title":{"rendered":"Flexible Pavement System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ontology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In this project, a formal representation of a flexible pavement system was developed using OWL 2 DL within the Prot\u00e9g\u00e9 platform, where the pavement system was modeled as a civil engineering system consisting of five different structural layers. An important aspect of this research was the development of a class hierarchy where the layer classes were made disjoint to avoid any ambiguity in the representation. Furthermore, a transitive property named ‘hasComponent’ was used in conjunction with a family of subproperties named ‘hasLayer’ to represent the composition of the system. Engineering design constraints were also incorporated into this representation in the form of domains, ranges, and cardinality constraints, where exactly one subgrade, at most one binder course, and one or more surface courses were used. Additionally, the representation of the materials was formalized by restricting the base and subbase layers to either granular or stabilized materials, while the binder and surface layers were restricted to asphalt concrete. This research also showed how the representation of a pavement system could be used to automatically derive the composition of the system by instantiating different pavement systems and how the description logic reasoner could automatically check the constraints of the system. Furthermore, this research also showed how this representation could be used for knowledge reuse by adding different types of data that could potentially be used in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Figure.1<\/strong> Ontology Visualization by Ontograf<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Parametric Modelling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The current research extends the conceptual framework of the existing ontology by translating the flexible pavement system into a fully parametric geometry and performance-based model using the Revit and Dynamo environment. The flexible pavement system is modeled as a five-layer stack with geometry driven by exposed parameters including length, width, layer thicknesses, target Structural Number, and crossfall angle. The geometry is procedurally generated using the Dynamo environment through the calculation of cumulative layer offsets, layer solids, and application of realistic crossfall through rotation of the geometry. The geometry is automatically updated in response to changes in the input parameters. The research also extends the existing ontology to include relevant engineering performance calculations, including the computation of the simplified AASHTO Structural Number using layer thicknesses and coefficients, as well as asphalt volume and mass for the binder and surface layers. The research also includes the assessment of three typical design strategies: asphalt-heavy, granular-heavy, and balanced approaches. The research demonstrates the capabilities of parametric modeling in the initial stages of the pavement design process in terms of the rapid assessment of the design space, including geometry, performance indicators, and decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Figure.2<\/strong> Dynamo Workflow<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Figure.3<\/strong> Pavement Visualization<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

References:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

AASHTO, 1993.<\/strong> Guide for Design of Pavement Structures.<\/em> Washington, D.C.: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. (This is the primary source for the Structural Number formula used in your assignment).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biancardo, S.A., Capano, A., de Oliveira, S.G. and Tibaut, A., 2020.<\/strong> Integration of BIM and procedural modeling tools for road design. Infrastructures<\/em>, 5(4), p.37. (This covers the use of visual programming and BIM for road components).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huang, Y.H., 2004.<\/strong> Pavement Analysis and Design<\/em> (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. (The standard textbook for understanding layer coefficients and structural responses in flexible pavements).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noy, N.F. and McGuinness, D.L., 2001.<\/strong> Ontology Development 101: A Guide to Creating Your First Ontology.<\/em> Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory Technical Report KSL-01-05. (Perfect for the section where you mention your project extends a previous ontology assignment).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sacks, R., Eastman, C., Lee, G. and Teicholz, P., 2018.<\/strong> BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Designers, Engineers, Contractors, and Facility Managers<\/em> (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. (Supports your conclusion regarding the advantages of fast exploration of design options and data-driven modeling).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ontology In this project, a formal representation of a flexible pavement system was developed using OWL 2 DL within the Prot\u00e9g\u00e9 platform, where the pavement system was modeled as a civil engineering system consisting ofContinue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":0,"parent":24743,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27243","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27243"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29145,"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27243\/revisions\/29145"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/141.23.68.248\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}