PAVEMENT DESIGN

AND ANALYSIS
(CE-860)
LEC-17

Fall Semester 2015

Dr. Arshad Hussain
arshad_nit@yahoo.com , Office Room#111,Tel: 05190854163,
Cell: 03419756251
National Institute of Transportation (NIT)
School of Civil & Environmental Engineering (SCEE)
National University of Science and Technology (NUST)

NUST Campus, Sector H-12, Islamabad

AASHTO DESIGN METHOD

(American Association of State Highway
and Transportation Officials)

PAVEMENT THICKNESS DESIGN

Comprehensive Definition
Pavement Thickness design is the determination
of thickness of various pavement layers (of
various pavement materials) for a given soil

condition and the predicted design traffic (in

terms of equivalent standard axle load) that will

provide the desired structural and functional

performance over the selected pavement design
life.

AASHTO PAVEMENT DESIGN GUIDE

Empirical

Several

design methodology

versions:

1961

1972
1986

1. Refined material characterization

2. Version included in Huang (1993)

AASHTO PAVEMENT DESIGN GUIDE

1993
1. More on Rehabilitation
2. More consistency between flexible and rigid
design
2002 (Released in 2010)
1. Latest Version
2. Based on mechanistic-empirical approach

AASHTO DESIGN GUIDE (1993)

AASHTO DESIGN GUIDE (1993)

AASHTO DESIGN GUIDE (1993)

AASHTO METHOD
Design Considerations
Pavement

performance

Traffic
Roadbed
Material

soil

of construction

Environment
Drainage
Reliability

PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE
Structural

cracking, raveling etc

Functional

riding comfort (measured

in terms of roughness of pavement)

Serviceability

PSI

performance: measured by

present serviceability index with

scale 0 to 5

TWO SERVICEABILITY INDICES

1.
2.

Initial Serviceability Index (pi)

Terminal Serviceability Index (pt)

Initial Serviceability Index (pi)

Serviceability index immediately after the
construction of the pavement
pi = 4.2 (4.5 for good condition)
(based on existing condition)

TWO SERVICEABILITY INDICES

Terminal Serviceable Index (pt)

Based on class of highway

Pt = 2.5 or 3 (for major highway)

Pt= 2.0

(for lower class highway)

Pt = 1.5

(for economic constraints

performance period may be

reduced)

ROADBED SOILS (SUB GRADE

MATERIAL)
For CBR of 10 or less
Mr (lb/in2) = 1500 CBR
For R of 20 or less
Mr (lb/in2) = 1000+ 555xR value
Mr = Resilient modulus

TRAFFIC
In

the AASHTO flexible pavement design,

traffic is considered in terms of ESAL for the
terminal PSI (Table D-1 to D-9)

You

must assume the structural number of

the pavement. So, you must check if the final
SN3 is similar to the assumed SN. Higher SN
means stronger pavement, thus the impact
of traffic on pavement deteriorations is less.

TRAFFIC
In the AASHTO flexible pavement design, traffic is considered
in terms of ESAL for the terminal PSI

ROADBED SOIL
CBR

(California Bearing Ratio), R-value (Resistance),

and Mr (Resilient modulus) are used to describe the
property of the subgrade material.
During the structural design, only Mr values are
used. The following conversion formulas are used if
either CBR or R-values are given.
Mr(lb/in2) = 1500 x CBR for fine-grain soils with
soaked CBR of 10 or less.
Mr(lb/in2) = 1000 + 555 x (R-value) for R <= 20

MATERIAL OF CONSTRUCTION
Fig.

7.15 (a) variation in base layer

coefficient (a2) with various base strength

parameters.
Fig. 7.15

(b) variation in bituminous treated

base layer coefficient (a2) with base

strength parameters.

FIGURE 7.15a (Huang) Layer coefficient a2 for

untreated base layer

FIGURE 7.15b (Huang) Layer coefficient a2 for

bituminous treated base layer

MATERIAL OF CONSTRUCTION
Fig.

7.15 (c) variation in cement treated

base layer coefficient (a2) with base

strength parameters.
Fig.

7.16 variation in subbase layer

coefficient (a3) with various subbase

strength parameters.

FIGURE 7.15c (Huang) Layer coefficient a2

for cement treated base layer

FIGURE 7.16 (Huang) Layer coefficient a3 for

subbase layer

MATERIAL OF CONSTRUCTION
AC

Surface

Fig.

11.27 Chart for estimating structural

layer coefficient of dense graded asphalt

concrete
modulus.

(a1)based

on

the

elastic

MATERIAL OF CONSTRUCTION

FIGURE 7.13 (Huang) Layer coefficient a1 for

HMA surface layer

ANALYSIS PERIOD

TRAFFIC IN DESIGN LANE

ENVIRONMENT
Temperature

and rainfall affect the level of

strength of the subgrade, reflected on the

value

of

resilient

modulus. AASHTO

developed a chart that helps you to

estimate the effective roadbed soil resilient

modulus using the serviceability criteria (in

terms of relative damage, uf.)

ENVIRONMENT
Determine

the average uf. value and

obtain Mr from the chart or the

equation of uf.
Fig.

11.26 Chart for estimating effective

roadbed soil resilient modulus for

flexible pavements designed using the

serviceability criterion.

FIGURE 11.26

DRAINAGE
The

effect of drainage on the

performance of flexible pavements is
considered with respect to the effect
water has on the strength of the base
material and roadbed soil.
This effect is expressed by the drainage
coefficient, mi. This value is dependent on
the drainage quality and the percent of
time pavement structure is exposed to
moisture levels approaching saturation.

TABLE 11.20

TABLE 11.21

RELIABILITY (R %)

Depends on highway class & Region (Table

11.14)

ESAL based on assume growth rate

i.e may not be accurate
Other method do not consider this uncertainty
AASHTO consider reliability factor
possible uncertainties in traffic condition
performance prediction

50 % Reliability design performance

success is 50 %

Variation in traffic forecast

RELIABILITY
The reliability factor (FR) is computed using:
The Reliability design level (R%), which determine assurance
levels that the pavement section designed using the procedure will
survive for its design period (it is a z-score from the standard
normal distribution
the standard deviation (So) that accounts for the chance variation
in the traffic forecast and the chance variation in actual pavement
performance for a given design period traffic, W18.

log10 FR Z R So

SD, So
Flexible pavements

0.40-0.5

Rigid pavements

0.30-0.40

TABLE 11.14

TABLE 11.15