Elmod 6 Guide for Elmod 5 Users

1. Table of Contents
1. Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... 2 2. List of Changes and News ............................................................................................ 3 3. Installation .................................................................................................................... 4 4. Databases....................................................................................................................... 4 5. Menus ............................................................................................................................ 5
5.1 Navigation ........................................................................................................................... 5 5.2 Menu Structure .................................................................................................................. 6

6. Settings .......................................................................................................................... 7 7. Temperature Handling ................................................................................................. 8 8. Merge, Split and Rename File Options ...................................................................... 11 9. Structure...................................................................................................................... 12 10. Backcalculation......................................................................................................... 13 11. Design ........................................................................................................................ 14
11.1 Overlay Design ............................................................................................................... 14 11.2 New Design...................................................................................................................... 15 11.3 Traffic.............................................................................................................................. 17

12. Plots ........................................................................................................................... 18 13. Parameters................................................................................................................. 19

13.1 Material Types................................................................................................................ 20
13.1.1 Fatigue Cracking and Permanent Deformation tabs .......................................................... 21 13.1.2 Temperature Dependency .................................................................................................... 22 13.1.3 Seasonal Temperatures......................................................................................................... 24

13.2 Vehicles and Wheels....................................................................................................... 25 13.3 Seasons ............................................................................................................................ 28

2. List of Changes and News

Windows and Menus
New Menu- and submenusystem with icons and click free navigation Navigation in menus from keyboard New backgrounds with color graduation Restructuring of menu items to be more logic

Raw Data
Facilities for graphical view of all 3 temperatures. Possibility to see effect of Bell's equation Possibility to enter complete structure including materials in Structure window Possibility to view section structures graphically Automatic handling of section definitions from GPR data Possibility to merge, split and rename imported files GPS data are transferred to Elmod6 database Facilities for graphical view of all 3 temperatures.

Parameters
Redesign of Parameter Setup to be more logic and understandable Selection of criteria from pre-defined list of possibilities New criteria can be named and saved to standard list Graphical view of criteria Graphical view of temperature correction function Graphical view of Seasonal variations Better and easier setup of design loads

Backcalculation and Design

Better guidance regarding temperature used for modulus correction Calculation of moduli at reference conditions, and to view these in Plots All traffic related information has moved to design window. Possibility to do design based on existing unbound layers or subgrade. Possibility to do design of new structure. Option for using Monte Carlo Simulation Design supports now single wheel dual axle and single wheel tridem axle Up to 24 load types (vehicles or aircrafts) with up 100 wheel setups can be included in one analysis

Graphics and Exports

Plot of Normalized deflections Separation of deflections for center and joint Plot of surface moduli per point, including new functionalities Word Reports Export of all data to Excel in one operation

Other
Vista compatibility Possibility for Time-limited licenses Does not require Elmod 5 to be uninstalled

Minor
Sorting of files in open file window Graphics during moduli estimation Automatic Link to Weather information site Graphical view of steps and offset for iteration process User-specified background colors Import of Temperature table from Excel

3. Installation
The installation procedure is the same as for Elmod5. It is no longer required to uninstall previous version, which makes it possible to run Elmod 5 and Elmod 6 at the same time on the same computer. This can be useful for testing the beta version. They will require separate license files. The default installation folder will be C:\Program Files\Dynatest\Elmod6\ Certain files that were previously installed in the Elmod program folder, will now be installed in a separate folder C:\Dynatest\Elmod6\ This change was necessary to make Elmod6 compatible with Windows Vista. The license file aDelmod.prd is one of these, and its important to notice that for Elmod 6 this file must be copied to the path as indicated. The template database (EmptyElmod6.mdb) and the Aircraft database (Aircrafts2007.mdb) will also go into this new folder. Files in this folder will not be overwritten if new releases are installed.

4. Databases
The structure of the database has changed to accommodate the new facilities in Elmod 6. Elmod 5 databases cannot be used with Elmod 6. Elmod 6 is instead equipped with an upgrade utility that can convert an Elmod5 database to Elmod 6 database format. If you open an Elmod 5 database in Elmod 6, the program will tell it is an Elmod 5 database, and ask if you want to create a copy to be used with Elmod 6. If you select Yes, you can then specify name and location of the new database, and Elmod will transfer all data to the new database. This will usually only take few seconds. The new database will then be opened, and you can continue to open a file from the database. All parameter setups are transferred as well.

Also the Aircraft database is new, and Elmod 6 will not be able to read the old one. If you have defined and added new aircraft types with Elmod 5, you have to add them again with Elmod 6 (or even better, to supply me with the information, so I can add them as defaults, then the information becomes accessable for all users).

5. Menus
As you will see the menu system is new, with an icons connected to each menu item. I have replaced the standard Windows layout, with a home made layout to make it look a bit more modern and fancy, and to allow certain activities that were not possible with the standard menu system.

5.1 Navigation
With Mouse When moving the mouse cursor over a menu item (label or related icon), you will automatically see the submenu if there is one, and you can continue the mouse move to the submenu item you want to go to. Submenu items can have a new submenu level. In the manner you can reach any menu item or submenu item without clicking the mouse. First when you have highlighted the desired item, you need to click to activate the item. The advantages are that you can move fast around in the menus and save a lot of mouse clicks. The drawback is that you need to be a bit more careful with the mouse movements, because a selected submenu window will disappear if you move the cursor outside the submenu window. I have reduced this drawback a bit by making the submenu items larger, which also allows more space for the related icons. From keyboard. The whole menu system can be controlled without using the mouse. Instead the key with the first letter of the menu label can be pressed (not case sensitive). To open a database you would then press: pdo and <Enter> (p for Project, d for Database, o for Open and <Enter> to activate) You will see the mouse cursor is following your choices, so its easy at any time in the process to let the mouse take over.

If more items have the same first letter, the first one will be selected, and you have to press the same key again to select next item.

5.2 Menu Structure

Some menu options from Elmod 5 have found new locations in Elmod 6: Units and language options have moved from Options to Settings window. Em factor has moved from Options to Settings Fix layer moduli (minimum and maximum values) from Options in Elmod 5, are now values specified in the parameter setup for each material type. In Settings it can be defined if they should be respected during backcalculation, View Bowl from Review data window has moved to a new facility in the PLOT features (Surface Modulus plot and click point in graph to activate). The Traffic options and distribution on defined load types have moved from Parameter Setup to Design window. Distress Reduction Factors have move from Structures to Settings. Selection of Load Transfer method has move from Structures to Settings. The Calibrate options have been removed, as better options are possible using the Fem/Let/Met module.

6. Settings

Units This can only be change, when no database is open. After opening a database it shows the selected unit system for the database. Weather Report Site This tells which Internet site to open, when you click the Link button located in the Moduli window (Next to average temperature, using Bells). Automatic insertion of seed values With this activated, Elmod 6 will automatically insert a materials reference modulus in the Structure window as seed value, when you select a material. Use moduli restrictions In the parameter Setup for materials you can set a minimum and a maximum value for the modulus. If you check to use moduli restrictions, then the backcalculation procedures will now allow the layer modulus to exceed this range.

On the tab Colors you can change the background colors for windows, frames and buttons. The factory settings are what you see here. For windows the colors can be graduated from top to bottom. Its possible to change to something very awful, so the possibility to change back to factory settings is useful. Level 1, 2 and 3 refers to main window, sub windows and sub sub windows.

7. Temperature Handling
This has traditionally been handled a bit confusing in earlier versions of Elmod. The problems were mainly: Air temperatures have never been read by Elmod. If asphalt temperatures have not been measured, the surface temperatures were automatically transferred and reported as the asphalt temperatures. This could lead to confusions whether it was necessary to use Bells equation for estimating asphalt temperature. It has not been possible to view the results of calculating asphalt temperatures using Bells equation.

From Review Data its now possible to get an overview of all temperatures, including the predicted temperature using Bells equation. In the table, you will see values for the measured temperatures. Please notice that asphalt temperature is reported as read from the data files. It often happens that values are present, even this temperatures has not been measured, because the operator has left a default value during the FWD testing. If you click the button Temperature graphs, you can see the temperature curves.

In the example to additional curves have been added: The asphalt temperature as calculated using Bells equation, based on the input as seen in the lower right corner. Interpolated asphalt temperatures, based on the input from manually recorded asphalt temperatures during testing. This curve is generated by clicking the Interpolate button, and is useful because often asphalt temperatures are only measured at the beginning and at the end of an FWD test section. Clicking the Transfer button, will send these temperatures to the table in Review data window, from where they can be saved permanently.

When later doing backcalculation you can decide which temperature to use for the asphalt. In the Moduli window you will see:

The temperature status box, gives the information about which temperatures that are available, and in the Asphalt temperatures box you can select which asphalt temperature that should be used. Notice that the asphalt temperature is normally not used in the backcalculation procedure, but will generate the asphalt temperature to be used with design, where moduli at testing temperature will be modified to moduli at seasonal design temperature. If materials types have been filled in before backcalculation, then the temperatures will be used to calculate the moduli at reference temperature. These can be seen in PLOT after backcalculation. Select Backcalculation Emoduli and go to Graph options and check Adjusted to reference conditions. The temperatures will also be used in the backcalculation in case a temperature sensitive material has been fixed to a specific modulus at a specific temperature. This layers moduli will then be calculated at testing temperature from the above input.

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8. Merge, Split and Rename File Options

Merging Its possible to merge two imported files, if they have same test setup (geophone distances, plate radius) and same number of drops per point. After import of the 2 files, open the first file (this will be the name of the combined file). From menu select: Project Datafile Merge files. Select then the file you want to merge into the one you opened.

Splitting To handle huge files covering long sections, it can be conviniant to split the file into two or more files. If you need to subdivide into more than 20 sections, it will be necessary to split file. The option is available from the Review data window. By right click in the chainage column, you get options for marking points to be transferred to a new file. When the selection of points is ready, you can click the Split File button, and you will have to give a name for the new file. Renaming Open the file, and from menu select : Project Datafile Rename file. Enter the new name for the file.

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9. Structure
The window for entering pavement structure and sections has been redesigned and the possibility to enter layer materials has been added.

Its not required to enter material type information, but if the information has been entered it will allow the backcalculation procedure also to calculate the moduli at reference conditions, and further you wont have to enter the information again when later doing design.

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In the example two sections have been defined. Clicking the View structure button will give a graphical overview of all sections with the entered pavement information.

Moving the mouse cursor over the layers will display a message box with the pavement information details for the layer and section. If using GPR data information and entered data with inconsistent number of layers, then this symbol will be blinking to right of the To field. Click it to let the program automatically subdivide the section according to the GPR data information.

10. Backcalculation
The Moduli window for starting backcalculations is mainly same as before. The temperature information is described in chapter 7. The button Reference moduli will calculate the moduli at reference temperature from the estimated moduli, if pavement layer materials types have been entered. Its mainly there to be used if moduli has been estimated using the Fem/Let/Met module which does not calculate them automatically. If using the Deflection bassin fit method, they will be calculated automatically, and there is no reason to use this option. The effects of changing Offset and Steps for the iteration process is now illustrated with a coloured bar. Offset defines how wide a range of moduli that will be included in next iteration loop, and steps defines how many points inside that range that will be calculated.

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11. Design
There has been added several new facilities to the design part of Elmod 6. When you select design from menu, you can now select between Overlay design and New design. Overlay design is used when design is based on existing results from the backcalculations. This can be on top of existing pavement or it can be with one or more layers removed before designed new overlay. New design will not use any existing pavement information. It will calculate required thickness of top layer, based on input of the other layers in the structure. A Monte Carlo simulation can be used, by entering standard deviation factors for the layer moduli.

11.1 Overlay Design

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The example shows input to Overlay design similar to what was possible with Elmod 5. In the upper left corner design on existing pavement is selected, and the overlay material is define in the Add new layers box. Its now possible to change the design modulus (at reference temperature) to some other value. If you wish to base design on existing unbound materials a possible input could be like this:

In the grid you will notice that the layers removed are grayed out. In the example 2 new layers are added, and the design will calculate the required thickness of the AC layer. Please notice you can only add new layers up to a total of 6 for the whole pavement structure including subgrade and design layer, and the total number of bound layer can maximum be 3. When a design calculation has finished, you can select View Plot for going directly to the graphing of the results in the PLOT program.

11.2 New Design

To do new design its not required to have any data file open, because no FWD data are used for the purpose. Its only possible to do design of the top layer, based on the information you enter of the layers below in terms of thicknesses and design modules. The design procedure will use the Parameter Setups like for normal overlay design, as well as the trafic input is handled the same way. An example of input is given in next in following figure:

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The results of the design will be shown in the Results frame, but you can also go to Plot program and view all results as usual. If you check to use Monte Carlo simulations the input screen will look like this:

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For each layer you can enter a standard deviation factor according to a logarithmic normal distribuation. For each run in the simulation, the design will calculate a random set of moduli according to the defined logarithmic normal distribuation using the entered E-modulus as mean value. The mean value and standard deviation for the overlay calculations will be displayed in the Reults frame. If you go to the PLOT program you will be able to see the results generated for each run in the simulation.

11.3 Traffic
The distribution on load types, and the traffic conversion facilities has moved from parameter setup to the design window, because this information is usually project related. In the example you see input for an Airport with 6 aircrafts defined in the parameter setup.

The traffic calculation functions work as before. A transfer button has been added to send the results to the design traffic window.

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12. Plots
Some additional facilities have been added to the Plot program. General For a file which is sectioned, it is now possible to have all graph types showing the results for all the sections together. This can be selected from Graph Options.

Deflections For PCC measurements its now possible to select only center tests or tests at joints from the Graph Options. Its now possible to show normalized deflections at a specific stress level. This can be selected from Graph Options. E Moduli If materials have been defined before backcalculations, it is possilbe to view Emoduli also at reference conditions. This option can be selected from Graph Options.

Design When viewing graphics for design results, the materials used can now be viewed in Graph options. For Seasonal values now also the values for the design materials can be plotted

Reports and Export All reports will now be created in Microsoft Word. A possibility to Export to Excel has beed added. All test data and results can be exported in one operation.

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13. Parameters
The windows and structure for defining the parameter setups have changed significantly to make this similar to the way it works in PERS. This goes specially for defining design loads. Various graphics option have been added to make it possible to view the effect of the chosen settings and constants. When selecting Parameters from main mneu you will get a list of avaible parameter setups. If no database is open the list comes from the defaults, otherwise its generates from the list in the project database. Select a name in the list and a tab with all information belonging to this setups will be displayed:

You can edit everything on all tabs, nothing will be saved before you decide by clicking on of the buttons to the right. Save as Permanent Setup will save the setup as a new default setup avaible with all new created databases. You cannot overwrite the existing default setups. Save Setup will save your changes to the setup, and Save as new Setup will save the parameters to a new name.

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13.1 Material Types

To the left you can select which material you want to look at, and you will have all the properties to the right. You can create a new material, and the new material will have a copy of the current materials properties per default. Material Type and Temperature Dependent. These are new fields. The temperature dependence should be set to activate the tab Temperature dependency for selecting method.

Fatigue Cracking and Permanent Deformations These can be clicked on/off as you like, and defines the criterias that should be active for the material. The related tabs below will be activated when you click them on. Hatch You can click this field for a choice of patterns to represent the material in various graphics in Elmod 6. Min. Modulus and Max Modulus These fields can be used to restrict the backcalculation to values within that range. If you want to do this, you also have to indicate in Settings, that the restriction must be followed. 20

13.1.1 Fatigue Cracking and Permanent Deformation tabs

Because fatigue cracking has been clicked on, as seen on the previous picture you have access to set the criteria from the tab. It is now possible to select from a list of named criterias. When selecting from the dropdown box, the related constants will be inserted in the equation. A list of criterias is provided as default with the installation, but you can add new as you like. If you change the constants so the equation no longer fits any from list, the program will tell you its an Unknown criteria. You can then give it a name by typing in the colored field and add it to the list by clicking Add to list. The criterias are associated with the choice of fatigue/permanent and the choice of stress/strain related. This means a criteria you have entered for fatigue cracking will not show up in the list you see when looking at permanent deformation criterias. If you click View, you will see a graphing of the selected criteria:

Its possible to compare various criteris on the graph, be unchecking the Clear option. After unchecking close the graph window, and select another criteria,

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then click View again. In next example 3 criterias are compared by repeating the procedure:

The Graph button is there to refresh the graph when changing the E-value for a criteria which is moduli dependent.

13.1.2 Temperature Dependency

The methods for correcting E-moduli according to the material temperature contains the same options as for Elmod 5. Its now possible to have a graphical view of the chosen method, by pressing the View button (see examples next page). You can compare different methods in the graphics, by unchecking the Clear button, closing the graph window, and select another method. Example of this is shown on next page.

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13.1.3 Seasonal Temperatures

This is where you define the seasonal design temperatures,by either setting them manually for each season, or by calculate them according to a sinousoidial temperature curve over the year. You can view the effects graphically by clicking the View button. In following example 4 seasons have been defined (from Seasons tab), and showing the effects of calculating temperatures from the sinousiodial equation:

The blue line shows the defined equation. At the top you see the 4 seasons definedd (S1 to S4), and the little blue squares indicate the characteristic week in the season. The design temperature used for each season is then showed by the light blue lines at the graph. The design temperature for season 2 is in the examples calculated as 17o C. You can change the characteristic week, by moving the little blue boxes to the left or the the right, using dragging with the mouse. You will see the effect that the blue line moves up or down. This is an alternative to enter the characteristic week number from the Seasons tab. If you select to define temperatures manually the graph will look like this for the defined 4 seasons, based on the manually entered design temperatures: 24

13.2 Vehicles and Wheels

The way of defining the loads used for the design has changed to something more similar to how it is handled in PERS. A load is now defined as a Vehicle with a number of related wheel configurations. A vehicle can then be a truck, an aircraft or an equivalent standard axle. In the design all defined vehicles in the parameter setup will be used with their related wheel information. There may be wheels defined in the list of wheel that do not belong to any of the defined vehicles. These will not be used in the design. Notice that the defined wheels usually consist of 2 sets symmetrical around the centerline of the vehicle. The load information on the Vehicle tab must reflect this. It means for trucks and and equivalent axle setup, the load percentage must be set as the axle load. For aircraft wing gears its the total for left and right, and for nose wheels and body gears, it must indicated on the Wheels tab that it is a centerline wheel type. 25

On the Vehicle tab it can selected whether the pass to coverage method or the normal distribution function should be used in the design. This setting counts for all defined vehicles in the parameter setup. If normal distribution is used, then the pass to coverage input fields are grayed out on the Wheels tab. Instead the Tread field is available, giving the distance between the two pair of wheels. Further the standard deviation must be entered on the Vehicle tab. The tread will be used to calculate the postions of the loaded lines in the traffic distribution for each wheel, while the postion of the line where responses are calculated is given by the input field Testline offset on the design window If pass to coverage method is used, you can enter pass to coverage ratios on the Wheels tab. Please notice following: - For roads you usually assume that all traffic loads or the equivalent loads apply to the same line, which means the pass to coverage values should be set to 1. - If using this method for aircraft loads the pass to coverage ratios are usually calculated for the critical gear. The pass to coverage ratio for the other gears (normally nose) must then be left blank (or you can select not to include them for the vehicle). As standard deviation and tread input fields are not relevant with this method, they will be grayed out on the tabs. Below is shown some examples of load efinitions

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Above setup of an equivalent axle as a vehicle. Following is the belonging Wheel tab information:

For a setup to be used for airfield evaluations a Vehicle setup could look like this:

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And the belonging wheels tab like this:

For aircrafts you can define a new vehicle by importing all necessary information from the Aircraft database supplied with Elmod 6. From the Vehicle tab, check the option Aircraft list and click Create new vehicle. This opens a window for selecting an aircraft type, and clicking OK will import all necessary information and add to both Vehicle tab and Wheel tab. You can following make changes if necessary before saving the setup.

13.3 Seasons
The information entered is like in Elmod 5. If you have made changes you can use the Even Distrbution button to insert the percentual values, that will equal traffic/day over the year.

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