Pavement Design

CE 453 Lecture 28

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Objectives

 Understand and complete ESAL

calculation
 Know variables involved in and be
able to calculate required thickness
of rigid and flexible pavements

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AASHTO Pavement Design
Method Considerations

 Pavement Performance
 Traffic
 Roadbed Soil
 Materials of Construction
 Environment
 Drainage
 Reliability
 Life-Cycle Costs
 Shoulder Design 3
 Two Categories of Roadway Pavements

 Rigid Pavement
 Flexible Pavement

Rigid Pavement Typical Applications

 High volume traffic lanes
 Freeway to freeway connections
 Exit ramps with heavy traffic 4
 Advantages of Rigid Pavement

 Good durability
 Long service life
 Withstand repeated flooding and
subsurface water without deterioration

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 Disadvantages of Rigid Pavement

 May lose non-skid surface with time

 Needs even sub-grade with uniform
settling
 May fault at transverse joints
 Requires frequent joint maintenance

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Flexible Pavement Typical
Applications

 Traffic lanes
 Auxiliary lanes
 Ramps
 Parking areas
 Frontage roads
 Shoulders
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 Advantages to Flexible Pavement

 Adjusts to limited differential

settlement
 Easily repaired
 Additional thickness added any time
 Non-skid properties do not deteriorate
 Quieter and smoother
 Tolerates a greater range of
temperatures
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 Disadvantages of Flexible Pavement

 Loses some flexibility and cohesion with

time
 Needs resurfacing sooner than PC
concrete
 Not normally chosen where water is
expected

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Basic AASHTO Flexible
Pavement Design Method

 Determine the desired terminal

serviceability, pt
 Convert traffic volumes to number of
equivalent 18-kip single axle loads (ESAL)
 Determine the structural number, SN
 Determine the layer coefficients, ai
 Solve layer thickness equations for 10

individual layer thickness

Basic AASHTO Rigid Pavement
Design Method

 Select terminal serviceability

 Determine number of ESALs
 Determine the modulus of sub-grade
reaction
 Determine the slab thickness

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Variables included in
Nomographs

 Reliability, R
• Incorporates a degree of certainty
into design process
• Ensures various design alternatives will
last the analysis period
 Resilient Modulus for Roadbed Soil,
MR
• Generally obtained from laboratory
testing 12
Variables included in
Nomographs

 Effective Modulus of Sub-Grade

Reaction, k
• Considers:
1. Sub-base type
2. Sub-base thickness
3. Loss of support
4. Depth to rigid foundation
 Drainage Coefficient, mi
• Use in layer thickness determination
• Applies only to base and sub-base
• See Tables 20.15 (flexible) and 21.9 (rigid) 13
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Other Growth Rates

 Multiple payment compound amount

factor, with i = growth rate
 G = [(1+i)n-1]/i

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Flexible Pavement Design
 Pavement structure is a multi-layered elastic
system, material is characterized by certain
properties
 Modulus of elasticity
 Resilient modulus
 Poisson ratio
 Wheel load causes stress distribution (fig 20.2)
 Horizontal: tensile or compressive
 Vertical: maximum are compressive, decrease with
depth
 Temperature distribution: affects magnitude of
stresses 27
Components

Sub-grade (roadbed) course: natural material that serves as the

foundation of the pavement structure
Sub-base course: above the sub-grade, superior to sub-grade course
Base course: above the sub base, granular materials such as crushed
stone, crushed or uncrushed slag, gravel, and sand
Surface course: upper course of the road pavement, should withstand
tire pressures, resistant to abrasive forces of traffic, provide skid-
resistant driving surface, prevent penetration of surface water
3 inches to > 6 inches 28
Economic Analysis

• Different treatments results in

different designs
• Evaluate cost of different
alternatives

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Sensitivity Analysis

• Input different values of traffic

volume
• Compare resulting differences in
pavement
• Fairly significant differences in ADT
do not yield equally significant
differences in pavement thickness
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OTHER ISSUES

 Drainage
 Joints
 Grooving (noise vs. hydroplaning)
 Rumble strips
 Climate
 Level and type of usage
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FAILURE EXAMPLES

 Primarily related to design or life-

cycle, not construction
 All images from Distress
Identification Manual for the Long-
Term Pavement Performance
Program, Publication No. FHWA-
RD-03-031, June 2003
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FATIGUE CRACKING

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RUTTING

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SHOVING

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PUMPING

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EXAMPLES

 http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot
 http://training.ce.washington.edu/wsdot

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