Accelerated load testing (ALT) facilities like the LINTRACKare believed to be an essential tool in the development of improvedperformance models for asphalt pavements. It should however berealized that even such facilities are only capable of modellingreal life conditions in a simple way. For that reason ALT studiesundertaken in the Netherlands have the primary goal to improveresponse and damage models, which in turn can be used for performancepredictions. This paper first describes the main features of theALT studies performed in the Netherlands on a thick (150 mm) andthin (70 mm) asphalt pavement on a sand subgrade. These show thatthe current Dutch design model is unable to fully describe thebehaviour of these pavements. Therefore, three suggested improvementsto this design model are described:

1) Mix-wise prediction of fatigue characteristics for practicalconditions from simple tests.

2) Calculation of strains and stresses using a linear visco-elasticmulti-layer approach.

3) Modelling of the wheel load, using a rectangular, non-uniformthree-dimensional distribution of contact stresses.