{"id":{"repo_id":"utc","oai_identifier":"oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1882"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/utc/oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1882","repository":{"repo_id":"utc","name":"University of Tennessee - Chattanooga","base_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Improvement of pavement mechanistic-empirical design (PMED) virtual weather station interpolation model using radial basis function - Tennessee case study","abstract":"Pavement Mechanistic Empirical Design (PMED) allows users to create Virtual Weather Stations (VWS) in locations where no nearby weather stations exist. VWS quality has faced several critiques through its implementations in PMED. PMED adopts the gravity model in its VWS creation process. MATLAB codes were used in comparing the error convergence of the gravity model interpolation technique and that by a Radial Basis Function (RBF). RBF interpolation showed very fast error convergence with the increase in number of interpolation data as compared to the gravity model. Contour plots emphasized the quality of interpolation where the RBF model produced well defined contours with a wider range of output than the gravity model. PMED software was used for further assessments of the quality of its VWS and RBF VWS considering climatic summary and pavement predicted distresses outputs. In most cases, the RBF VWS outperformed the current PMED VWS outputs.","abstract_html":"Pavement Mechanistic Empirical Design (PMED) allows users to create Virtual Weather Stations (VWS) in locations where no nearby weather stations exist. VWS quality has faced several critiques through its implementations in PMED. PMED adopts the gravity model in its VWS creation process. MATLAB codes were used in comparing the error convergence of the gravity model interpolation technique and that by a Radial Basis Function (RBF). RBF interpolation showed very fast error convergence with the increase in number of interpolation data as compared to the gravity model. Contour plots emphasized the quality of interpolation where the RBF model produced well defined contours with a wider range of output than the gravity model. PMED software was used for further assessments of the quality of its VWS and RBF VWS considering climatic summary and pavement predicted distresses outputs. In most cases, the RBF VWS outperformed the current PMED VWS outputs.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Msechu, Kelvin J"],"institution":"University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Onyango, Mbakisya; Ghasemi, Arash","Owino, Joseph; Fomunung, Ignatius; Wu, Weidong","College of Engineering and Computer Science"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:47:06Z","subjects":["Mathematical Modeling","Pavements","Radial basis functions"],"languages":["English","eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/713","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Onyango, Mbakisya; Ghasemi, Arash","Owino, Joseph; Fomunung, Ignatius; Wu, Weidong","College of Engineering and Computer Science"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Msechu, Kelvin J"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2021-05-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Masters theses","Text"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Mathematical Modeling","Pavements","Radial basis functions"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/713"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Dept. of Civil and Chemical Engineering","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Pavement Mechanistic Empirical Design (PMED) allows users to create Virtual Weather Stations (VWS) in locations where no nearby weather stations exist. VWS quality has faced several critiques through its implementations in PMED. PMED adopts the gravity model in its VWS creation process. MATLAB codes were used in comparing the error convergence of the gravity model interpolation technique and that by a Radial Basis Function (RBF). RBF interpolation showed very fast error convergence with the increase in number of interpolation data as compared to the gravity model. Contour plots emphasized the quality of interpolation where the RBF model produced well defined contours with a wider range of output than the gravity model. PMED software was used for further assessments of the quality of its VWS and RBF VWS considering climatic summary and pavement predicted distresses outputs. In most cases, the RBF VWS outperformed the current PMED VWS outputs."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Improvement of pavement mechanistic-empirical design (PMED) virtual weather station interpolation model using radial basis function - Tennessee case study"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Onyango, Mbakisya; Ghasemi, Arash","Owino, Joseph; Fomunung, Ignatius; Wu, Weidong","College of Engineering and Computer Science"],"dc:creator":["Msechu, Kelvin J"],"dc:date":["2021-05-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["Dept. of Civil and Chemical Engineering","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."],"dc:description.abstract":["Pavement Mechanistic Empirical Design (PMED) allows users to create Virtual Weather Stations (VWS) in locations where no nearby weather stations exist. VWS quality has faced several critiques through its implementations in PMED. PMED adopts the gravity model in its VWS creation process. MATLAB codes were used in comparing the error convergence of the gravity model interpolation technique and that by a Radial Basis Function (RBF). RBF interpolation showed very fast error convergence with the increase in number of interpolation data as compared to the gravity model. Contour plots emphasized the quality of interpolation where the RBF model produced well defined contours with a wider range of output than the gravity model. PMED software was used for further assessments of the quality of its VWS and RBF VWS considering climatic summary and pavement predicted distresses outputs. In most cases, the RBF VWS outperformed the current PMED VWS outputs."],"dc:identifier":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/713"],"dc:language":["English","eng"],"dc:publisher":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"],"dc:relation":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"],"dc:rights":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:subject":["Mathematical Modeling","Pavements","Radial basis functions"],"dc:title":["Improvement of pavement mechanistic-empirical design (PMED) virtual weather station interpolation model using radial basis function - Tennessee case study"],"dc:type":["Masters theses","Text"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:47:06Z"}