Abstract: The conventional pavement design methods, such as, empirical, mechanical as well as mechanicalempirical methods , cannot meet the requirements of the development of heavily, extra heavily loaded asphalt pavements. It is both a research and a practical challenge for meeting the requirements of both the material and the structural design. It is also difficult to develop a design method that considering the aspects of pavement structure, material, environment; load and cost and maximize the performance of the pavement structure under the extra heavy loading conditions. The nationally and internationally existing typical pavement design methods are reviewed in this paper. The performance based full life cycle asphalt pavement and perpetual asphalt pavement design methods are introduced and suggestions for the design improvements are provided.

Key words: Asphalt Pavement, Full Life Cycle, Pavement Performance, Gyratory Testing Machine