The project provided definition and guidelines to help agencies involved in accelerated pavement testing (APT) ensure proper interpretation of the data and facilitate their use by other agencies.

The use of APT for determining pavement response and performance has increased in recent years, primarily because of its ability to apply wheel loads in a compressed time period, thus providing an expedited means of evaluating potential materials, designs, and features. However, the data collected and reported by the various APT facilities have often varied in definition and format, making it difficult for others to interpret and use. Therefore, there is a need to identify and develop definitions of the data associated with the tests performed by APT facilities and to recommend guidelines for data collection, storage, and retrieval. Use of these guidelines will promote compatibility of data resulting from APT at different facilities and will provide an effective means for economically addressing issues of common concern, reducing duplication of research efforts, and enhancing the benefits of APT.

The research included a review of relevant domestic and foreign literature; a survey of U.S. organizations that had active APT facilities as well as organizations that previously operated or planned future operation of APT facilities; and visits to several U.S. facilities to acquire information on the current practices for use as a basis for developing acceptable definitions and rational guidelines. The research was concerned with APT in which full-scale wheel loads are applied to full pavement structures by either machines or vehicles in a test facility, test track, or in-service pavement. The research suggested the classification of data elements into seven categories--administrative information, load application, pavement description, materials characterization, environment and climate, pavement response, and pavement performance--and provided definitions of the data elements included in each category. The research also recommended guidelines that address (1) the data elements and their definitions and (2) the data collection and storage requirements, and identified the test methods currently available for characterizing paving materials used in APT. NCHRP Report 512, "Accelerate Pavement Testing: Data Guidelines" documents the work performed under this project.