Current Approach to Pavement Design

CIV2242
Dr Jayantha Kodikara (Kodi)
Pavement Design System
(Austroads, 2001 draft)
Structural Design
1. Flexible Pavements
2. Rigid Pavements
3. Overlays
Design Traffic
Pavement
Materials
Subgrade
Evaluation
Environment
Construction
&
Maintenance
Considerations
Comparison
Of Designs
Implement
and monitor
Flexible Pavement Design
Flexible Approach
Distress Modes for Flexible Pavements
(modified from Austroads, 2004)
Distress
Mode
Likely Causes Materials
Affected
Rutting
Deformation of underlying materials,
specially subgrade
Unbound materials,
(bound materials?)
Cracking
Traffic associated
Single or low repetitions of high load
Many repetitions of normal loads

Non-traffic associated
Thermal cycling
Reflection of shrinkage cracks
Swelling/shrinking of subgrade materials
Asphalt, cemented
materials, granular
materials
Roughness
variability of density, swelling/shrinking of
subgrade materials
All materials
Design Chart for Granular
Materials with Thin Bituminous
Surfacing (Austroads, 2004)
| | ) 120 / log( ) (log 58 ) (log 211 219
2
DESA CBR CBR t + =
Example
Example:
A unbound pavement is to be designed over a weak subgrade of CBR
4 to carry design ESAs of 2 x 10
6
. Design a pavement with base
and one subbase layer over the subgrade. The base is to be made
of good quality crushed rock with CBR well over 80. The subbase
layer is to be made of marginal gravel material with a design CBR of
30.
From Figure 2, the thickness of the pavement needed above the
subgrade of CBR 4 is 480 mm.
If we place, gravel above the subgrade, then the pavement
thickness needed above that layer is, by looking up the graph for
CBR 30, is 130 mm.
Therefore, the pavement layer thicknesses are: base (crushed rock)
= 130 mm; subbase (gravel) = (480-130) = 350 mm.

Mechanistic Pavement Design
Mechanistic Pavement Design Model for
Flexible Pavements (Austroads, 2001 draft)
Asphalt
300 300
1800 mm
165
2
3 3
Granular
Material
Cemented
Material
Subgrade
1 Tensile strain at bottom of asphalt
2 Tensile strain at bottom of cemented material
3 Compressive strain at top of subgrade
Critical locations
1
Uniform stress
(equal to tyre
pressure)
Material behaviour and input
parameters
Material Behaviour Properties
Asphalt Isotropic E
flex
, v
Cement treated Isotropic E
flex
, v
Unbound granular Anisotropic Ev, Eh, vv, vh, and
f (shear modulus)
But,
E
h
= 0.5 E
v

v
v
= v
h
= v
f = E
v
/ (1+v)
E
v
is the resilient
modulus.
Determination of pavement life
100
1000
10000
100000
1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06 1.E+07
Austroads (2004) Approach for
Subgrade Modelling
Prevent the rutting failure by limiting the vertical strain on
the subgrade.
Basically assume that soil behaves in a resilient manner
under these strains.

7
9300
(

=
c
N
log N
log c
How is c is determined?
Asphalt
Asphalt is a mixture of bituminious binder and
aggregate which is spread and compacted while
hot to form a pavement layer.
The strength/stiffness of asphalt is derived from
friction between the bitumen coated aggregate
particles and the cohesion resulted from bitumen
binder.
Main forms of distress are:
Fatigue failure
Rutting and shoving due to inadequate strength and
stiffness.
Asphalt modulus (x1000, MPa)
Typical Australian Dense-Graded Asphalt at 25
o
C (Austroads, 2004)
Binder Mix Size (maximum particle size, mm)
10 14 20
Range Typical Range Typical Range Typical
Class
170
2-6 3.5 2.5-3.5 3.7 2-4.5 4
Class
320
3-6 4.5 2-7 5 3-7.5 5.5
Class
600
3-6 6 4-9 6.5 4-9.5 7
Multigra
de
3.3-5 4.5 3-7 5 4-7 5.5
SBS 1.5-4 2.2 2-4.5 2.5 3-7 3
EVA 3-6.5 5.6
Asphalt Fatigue Failure
(Austraods, 2004 using Shell (1978) relationship)
500
1000
800
400
300
200
100
1.0E+03
600
900
700
1100
1.0E+04 1.0E+07 1.0E+08 1.0E+05 1.0E+06
E=2000 MPa
Vb=10%
E=2000 MPa
Vb=12%
E=4000 MPa
Vb=10%
E=4000 MPa
Vb=12%
M
i
c
r
o
s
t
r
a
i
n

ESA Repetitions
V
b
=bitumen percentage by volume; E=asphalt resilient modulus
5
36 . 0
) 08 . 1 856 . 0 ( 6918
(
(

+
=
c
flex
b
E
V
RF N
RF=0.95
Behaviour of Cemented Materials
Cemented materials may be described as a
mixture of a cementitious binder, granular
material and water, compacted and cured.
The material has strength/stiffness more than
the granular material (host material) but less
than those of concrete.
Typical binder contents used are 2 to 6% by
weight.
In contrast to granular materials, these materials
develop some tensile strength.
Cemented Materials
Approximated to be linear elastic (under normal
operating conditions) and isotropic.
Elastic modulus and Poissons ratio are needed
to characterise the material.
Because the bending tensile fatigue failure is
considered to be main distress mode under
traffic loading, flexural modulus is preferred.


Parameters for Cemented Materials
Flexural modulus at 28 days curing in the road-
bed is required.
This may be obtained by:
Laboratory flexural beam tests, E
flex

Correlations of E
flex
with other laboratory tests (UCS)
E
flex
=1500 UCS ; UCS of lab specimens at 28 days curing.
Presumptive values.
Span/depth >3
P
A
P
A
Presumptive Parameters for
Cemented Materials
Material
Category
Cemented Materials
Property
(E in MPa)
Lean Mix
Concrete
Base
4 to 5%
Cement
Crushed Rock
2 to 4%
Cement
Subbase
quality natural
gravel 4 to 5%
cement
Range of E 5000 15000 3000-8000 2000 to 5000 1500 - 3000
Typical E 7000 (Rolled)
10000 (Screed)
5000 3500 2000
Degree of
anisotrophy
1 1 1 1
Range of
Poissons ratio
0.1 - 0.3 0.1 - 0.3

0.1 - 0.3

0.1 - 0.3

Typical u 0.2 0.2

0.2

0.2

Failure of Cemented Materials
Austroads (2004)
12
804 . 0
) 191
113000
(
(
(
(
(

+
=
c
E
RF N
RF=0.95
Granular materials
No failure criteria is used.
It is assumed that the material property requirements
have been met (discussed under Pavement Materials).
The material is considered as anisotropic elastic material
for mechanistic analyses.
The granular layer can be divided into sublayers to
account for the variation of modulus due to different
stress levels.
Need E
v
and Poissons ratio u. For mechanistic
designs, the soil is assumed to be anisotropic with
E
v
/E
H
=2 and u
v
= u
H
. Another parameter (shear modulus)
f=E/(1+ u
v
).
Presumptive Values for Granular Unbound
Materials (Austroads, 2004)
Material
Category
Unbound Granular
High Quality Crushed
Rock
Base Quality Gravel Subbase Gravel
Property
E in MPa
Over
Granular
Material
Over Stiff
Cemented
Material
Over
Granular
Material
Over Stiff
Cemented
Material
Over
Granular
Material

Over Stiff
Cemented
Material

Range E
v
150-700 200-700 150-500 200-500 150-400 150-450
Typical E
v
500 500 400 400 300 300
Degree of
Anisotropy
2 2 2 2 2 2
Range of u
u
v
= u
H
0.25-0.4 0.25-0.4 0.25-0.4 0.25-0.4 0.25-0.4 0.25-0.4
Typical u 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35
Project Reliability and Reliability
Factor (RF)
Road classes Project reliability (%)
Freeway 95-97.5
Highway: lane AADT >2000 95-97.5
Highway: lane AADT s2000 85-95
Main Road: lane AADT >500 85-95
Other Roads: lane AADT s500 80-90
Desired
project
reliability
Reliability Factor (RF)
Asphalt Cemented
materials
80% 4.7 2.5
85% 3.3 2.0
90% 2.0 1.5
95% 1.0 1.0
97.5% 0.5 0.67
Summary of pavment design strategy
Construction &
Maintenance
Influences
Environment
Subgrade
Evaluation
Traffic
Select Trial
Pavement
Accept?
& Collect Feedback
Comparsion of
Yes
Criteria
Performance
Implement Design
Designs
Materials
Pavement
Analysis
Pavement
No
References

1. Austroads Pavement Design Guide (2004)
2. Brown, S.F. (1996). Soil mechanics in pavement engineering, Geotechnique
46, No. 3, pp. 383-426.
3. Lay, M.G. 1998). Handbook of road technology, Volume 1, Third Edition,
Transportation Studies volume 8, Gorden and Beach Science Publishers
4. Shell (1978). Pavement Design Manual.

END