Improved models of solar radiation and convective heat transfer for pavement temperature prediction

Abstract

The enhanced integrated climactic model (EICM) is generally recognised as the standard approach for estimating pavement temperature profiles. Applications of the EICM are not limited to designing pavements but have also been expanded to understanding urban heat islands and the impact of climate change on pavement maintenance and rehabilitation costs. However, many parts of the EICM contain errors that lead to an overprediction of high temperatures, which has direct implications towards the applicability of using the EICM in its current form for broad applications. This paper systematically introduces three errors in the EICM, recommends approaches for correcting those errors and demonstrates how correcting the errors improves temperature predictions.