Computers and Geotechnics 120 (2020) 103413

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Computers and Geotechnics

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Research Paper

Modeling humidity and stress-dependent subgrade soils in flexible T

pavements
⁎
Junhui Penga, Junhui Zhanga, , Jue Lia, Yongsheng Yaob, Anshun Zhanga
a
National Engineering Laboratory of Highway Maintenance Technology, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha 410114, China
b
School of Civil Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study aimed to develop a finite element model to simulate the flexible pavement structure by considering
Finite element the nonlinear characteristics of subgrade soils which are related to humidity and stress. First, an analytical model
Resilient modulus model was proposed and proven to quantify the effect of the humidity and stress on the resilient modulus of subgrade
Nonlinear characteristic soils. Second, a UMAT was programmed to characterize nonlinear moisture and stress-sensitive relationship of
Subgrade soils
subgrade soils. Then, the humidity field values of subgrade were calculated by GEOSTUDIO and verified by field
Flexible pavement
measurement. Meanwhile, the humidity field values were imported into ABAQUS through MATLAB. Finally, the
UMAT was implemented in the finite element model of flexible pavement structures. The finite element simu-
lation indicated that the distribution of moisture content of subgrade significantly affects the resilient modulus
distribution of subgrade and critical response of pavement structures. Resilient modulus of subgrade soils in the
vicinity of load area are significantly larger than those far away the load area. The surface deflection, the tensile
stress at the bottom of inorganic binder base, and the compressive strains on the top of subgrade increase greatly
with the initial humidity field condition to the equilibrium humidity field condition.

1. Introduction and the moisture content on the resilient modulus [8–10].

Flexible pavement structure is mainly composed of asphalt surface
layer and subgrade. The subgrade provides the foundational support for
the pavement structure, and eliminates the stresses caused by traffic
loading. Understanding the constitutive behavior of subgrade soils is
crucial to the accurate performance prediction of the pavement struc-
tures. In the conventional pavement design, the subgrade is assumed to
be linear elastic. However, several recent studies have revealed that the
subgrade soil exhibits nonlinear behavior, which means the resilient
modulus of the subgrade soil is stress and humidity-dependent [1]. Seed
et al. [2] first proposed the k-θ model with bulk stress as a variable to
quantitatively describe the mechanical behavior of subgrade soil. Sub-
sequently, a universal model considering the effects of constraint and
shear was developed in the National Cooperative Highway Research
Program project 1-28A [3]. In addition, the subgrade is usually affected
by groundwater and the moisture content affects the constitutive be-
havior of subgrade soils, which further influences the performance of
pavement structures in the field [4]. It was reported that the resilient
modulus of subgrade soils is moisture sensitive, i.e., the modulus de-
creases with the growing saturation level [5–7]. Previous studies de-
scribed some prediction models considering the effect of the stress state
It is an important method to analyze the mechanical response of
flexible pavement structure by establishing an appropriate resilient
modulus prediction model and transplanting it into the finite element
(FE) method [11–13]. In the literatures, when studying the resilient
modulus, the subgrade can usually be regarded as an elastic body
considering the stress level and acting speed of traffic load on the
subgrade under the action of traffic load [14–17]. The first reported use
of the FE method in flexible pavement engineering was published in
Duncan et al. [18]. Since then, there has been a great deal of research
using the FE method to conduct linear and nonlinear analysis [19–21].
Relatively recently, Dong et al. [22] proposed an improved prediction
model of subgrade compacted silty clay with four parameters. In this
study, the consistent tangent stiffness matrix was derived and the model
was implemented into the FE software ABAQUS by compiling the user
material subroutine. But the model only considers the deviatoric stress
and bulk stress. Gu et al. [16] integrated the moisture-dependent re-
silient modulus constitutive model into the FE pavement model. How-
ever, it can only simulate specific situations with uniform moisture
distribution, which limited its application in coupled hydro-mechanical
analyses. Liao et al. [17] also investigated the suction-dependent
properties of subgrade granular material and simulated the influence of

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zjhseu@csust.edu.cn (J. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2019.103413
Received 16 August 2019; Received in revised form 17 December 2019; Accepted 20 December 2019
Available online 09 January 2020
0266-352X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Peng, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 120 (2020) 103413

three different moisture content corresponding to different depths on similarity. Fig. 1 displays the comparison between the predicted mod-
pavement structure performance by ABAQUS. However, it is impossible ulus using Eq. (1) and the measured modulus from the triaxial tests. It
to truly reflect the influence of the actual moisture content of the can be seen that the model prediction provides a good agreement with
subgrade on the flexible pavement structure, because the moisture the test measurements. This indicates that the constitutive model pro-
content of each point in the subgrade may have a large difference ac- posed in Eq. (1) is able to reflect the moisture-sensitive and stress-de-
cording to field studies [23–25]. Therefore, the moisture and stress- pendent behavior of subgrade soils.
sensitive behavior of each point in the subgrade should be taken into The main purpose of establishing the resilient modulus prediction
account for modeling the pavement structures. model is to apply it to FE calculation. The UMAT interface of ABAQUS
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, this study aims at was used for applications of Eq. (1). The secant stiffness method was
proposing a new constitutive model for subgrade soils considering both used to solve the nonlinear mechanical behavior of the subgrade soil,
nonlinear moisture and stress-sensitive characteristics, and in- that is, the initial elastic stiffness of each step of the model was trans-
corporating the proposed constitutive model into the FE model based formed into an Elastic matrix, and the time step was calculated from the
on the ABAQUS to quantify the influence of moisture content on the current strain increment. Therefore, to realize the secondary develop-
pavement performance. As the prerequisite of flexible pavement ment of the Eq. (1), the Elastic matrix under the full stress state must be
structure performance analysis, humidity field data were simulated and obtained.
import to ABAQUS through GEOSTUDIO and MATLAB. Then, a new The generalized Hooke’s law was used to define the nonlinear
user-defined material subroutine (UMAT) was developed to char- elasticity behavior of subgrade soils, which is shown in Eq. (2) [30].
acterize moisture-sensitive and stress-dependent nonlinear behavior of
1 μ μ
unsaturated subgrade soils. Finally, FE calculations with four different ⎡ E − E − E 0⎤
humidity distribution conditions were implemented. The distribution of ⎢ μ 1 μ ⎥ σx ⎤ ⎡ εx ⎤
⎢− E E − E 0 ⎥ ⎡ σy εy
moisture within subgrade, the distribution of resilient modulus with ⎢ μ ⎥ ⎢ σz ⎥ =⎢ ⎥
μ
⎢− E − E E 0 ⎥ ⎢
1 ⎥ ⎢ εz ⎥
stress and humidity, and the effect of moisture content of subgrade on ⎥ ⎢γ ⎥
pavement responses were analyzed. ⎢ ⎥⎢⎣ τxy ⎦ ⎣ xy ⎦
⎢ 0 0 0 1⎥
⎣ G⎦ (2)

2. Constitutive model and UMAT where E is the elastic modulus; G is the shear modulus; μ is the Poisson’s
ratio to characterize the effect of vertical strain on horizontal strain or
2.1. Development of resilient modulus model for subgrade soils horizontal strain on vertical strain; σx, σy, σz, τxy are plane stress para-
meters; εx, εy, εz, γxy are plane strain parameters.
When establishing the resilient modulus prediction model, the In ABAQUS, this constitutive model needs to be rewritten as a
stress-strain relationship should be established as accurately as possible strain-stress relationship. Converted from Eq. (2), the strain-stress re-
according to the constitutive law, and the influence of each factor lationship for the nonlinear elasticity material can be expressed as Eq.
should be considered. Therefore, a new resilient modulus prediction (3).
model for subgrade soils was proposed, as shown in Eq. (1), for com-
σ ε
bining the moisture-dependent characteristic of the resilient modulus of ⎡ σx ⎤ ⎡ x ⎤
εy
subgrade soils [6,26]. This new model is able to determine the resilient ⎢ ⎥ = [D] ε ⎥, [D]
y ⎢
σ
⎢ z⎥ ⎢ z ⎥
modulus at any moisture content and specific stress state. ⎢1 ⎥
⎢ τxy ⎥ γ
k1 k2 k
⎣ ⎦ ⎣ 2 xy ⎥
⎢ ⎦
3
ψ θ τ
MR = k 0 pa ⎛⎜ + 1⎞⎟ ⎛⎜ m ⎞⎟ ⎛⎜ oct + 1⎞⎟ ⎡1 − μ μ μ 0 ⎤
⎝ pa ⎠ ⎝ pa ⎠ ⎝ pa ⎠ (1) E ⎢ μ 1−μ μ 0 ⎥
=
where MR is the resilient modulus; ψ is the matric suction; θm is the (1 + μ)(1 − 2μ) ⎢
⎢
μ μ 1−μ 0 ⎥
⎥
minimum bulk stress which separated the shear effect from the con- ⎣ 0 0 0 1 − 2μ ⎦ (3)
straint effect, θm = θ − σd; θ is the bulk stress; σd is the cyclic deviatoric
where [D] is the Elastic matrix.
stress; τoct is the octahedral shear stress; pa is the atmospheric pressure,
In Eq. (3), the elastic modulus E is dependent on both the stress state
and pa = 101.3 kPa; k0, k1, k2, k3 and k4 are the regression coefficients
and the moisture content. In order to characterize this behavior, Eq. (1)
that are dependent on material properties of the subgrade soils. In this
was used to replace E.
model, θm and τoct vary with the stress state, and ψ is related to the
moisture content of subgrade soils. It should be noted that θm has a
more reasonable physical meaning than the θ, and the numerical ana- 2.2. Development of a UMAT for ABAQUS
lysis can be simplified by using θm to avoid problems with too long time
or no convergence. Eq. (3) was used to write the UMAT subroutine to characterize the
In order to validate the Eq. (1), the repeated loading dynamic nonlinear mechanical behavior of subgrade soils dependent on moisture
triaxial tests were conducted on the 10 selected subgrade soils at dif- and stress. At the same time, the matric suction was used as a custom
ferent moisture contents. The properties for 10 selected subgrade soils variable of the materials to reflect the humidity change at each point of
are shown in Table 1. A–J represent different soil sample types. A–C the subgrade soils. Due to the different degrees of compaction for each
include 7 moisture content ranges. D and E include 2 moisture content layer of the subgrade, the model parameters of Eq. (1) (i.e., k0, k1, k2,
ranges. F, G, H, I and J include 6, 5, 5, 8 and 7 moisture content ranges k3) varied with the degree of compaction. The nonlinear humidity and
respectively. The loading sequence adopted by G is determined ac- stress-dependent resilient modulus model was formulated as a function
cording to the stress state of local pavement structure. Other soil of the strain state. Therefore, the FE calculation was implemented by
samples are loaded with AASHTO T307-99 method. The details can the secant stiffness technique, and the nonlinear stress-strain behavior
refer to the relevant literature [5,8,9,27–29]. Subsequently, the mea- was solved by updating the secant stiffness in each iteration until the
sured resilient modulus, stress state and matric suction values were stress increment converges. This nonlinear solution technique is less
substituted into Eq. (1) to solve for the four unknown coefficients, k0, complicated than the tangent stiffness method and Newton-Raphson
k1, k2 and k3, using the fitting solution software. The values and the method, but it is accurate enough to provide iterative convergence
corresponding R-squared values for each soil samples are listed in [13]. In order to improve the convergence of the iteration, the resilient
Table 2. R2 is the correlation coefficient, the closer to 1, the higher the modulus in each iteration was calculated by Eq. (4) [16].

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J. Peng, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 120 (2020) 103413

Table 1
Performance-related soil properties of samples.
No. Reference wL (%) IP (%) wopt (%) ρdmax (g/cm3) P0.075 (%) Classification

USCS ASSHTO

A Qian [27] 41.8 21.9 15.4 1.82 57.1 CL A-6

B Qian [27] 55.7 28.5 17.5 1.76 60.2 CH A-7-6
C Qian [27] 29.6 12.3 13.1 1.92 50.7 CL A-6
D Liang [8] 27.8 8 14.2 1.81 56.3 CL A-4
E Liang [8] 30.8 12.4 16.5 1.8 68.8 CL A-6
F Ng [9] 43 14 16.3 1.76 78 CL A-7-6
G Zhang [5] 57.4 28.3 23.5 1.56 95.95 CH A-7-6
H Han and Vanapalli [28] 35.5 19 13.9 1.87 72 CL A-6
I Han and Vanapalli [28] 48 26 23 1.64 80 CL A-6
J Han [29] 31 11 20.3 1.66 85 CL A-4

Note: wL is the liquid limit; IP is the plasticity index; wopt is the optimum moisture content; ρdmax is the maximum dry density; P0.075 is the percentage passing through
a 0.075 mm sieve; CH is high-plasticity clay; CL is low-plasticity clay.

Table 2 In order to obtain the computational inputs of the matric suction,

Regression coefficients of different soils. GEOSTUDIO was used to calculate the moisture content state at each
No. k0 k1 k2 k3 R2
point of the subgrade [31]. Then, the corresponding moisture content of
each point of the subgrade was exported as the .xlsx file. The .xlsx file
A 664.88 0.443 0.186 −1.371 0.98 cannot be read directly in ABAQUS, and was converted to the .inp file
B 699.45 0.476 0.258 −0.839 0.98 by programming with MATLAB. In this way, the inputs of matric suc-
C 882.34 0.425 0.150 −1.811 0.99
D 593.34 0.327 0.103 −2.059 0.93
tion of each point in the subgrade can be stored in state variable array
E 197.70 0.680 0.097 −1.602 0.98 through the user-defined initial state (SDVINI) subroutine and trans-
F 796.27 1.312 1.000 −2.805 0.98 mitted to UMAT subroutine. The flowchart of the developed UMAT
G 807.66 0.293 0.171 −1.295 0.97 subroutine is depicted as in Fig. 2.
H 202.44 1.691 0.0004 −0.851 0.98
In order to verify the accuracy of humidity field inputs, field mea-
I 220.35 0.910 0.116 −0.911 0.99
J 247.01 1.364 0.198 −1.437 0.91 surement was carried out on the Nanchang to Zhangshu expressway in
Jiangxi province after 15 years of operation [32]. Field measurement of
slope excavation and numerical simulations values of monitoring points
300 are shown in Fig. 3. For ease of view, the locations of the monitoring
A, R2=0.98 points are also shown in Fig. 4. The details of numerical simulations of
250 B, R2=0.98 humidity field were described in the next section. Except for points A1
C, R2=0.99
Predicted, MR (MPa)

and B1, the overall predicted correlation of Fig. 3a and b is 0.99 and
D, R2=0.93 0.98, respectively. This means that numerical results are very close to
200
E, R2=0.98 the measured ones, except for the measuring point near the outermost
slope. This is because the slope surface is obviously affected by the
150
uncertain and random external climate environment and vegetation
F, R2=0.98 roots, which leads to a relatively large error between the numerical
100 G, R2=0.97 value and the measured value. Therefore, the developed humidity field
H, R2=0.98 inputs are capable of capturing the moisture content of each point of
50 I, R2=0.99 the subgrade.
J, R2=0.91
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 3. FE modeling of flexible pavement structures
Measured, MR (MPa)
3.1. FE simulation of humidity field
Fig. 1. Comparison of predicted and measured resilient modulus for selected
subgrade soils. As mentioned above, VADOSE/W module of GEOSTUDIO was used
to calculate the distribution of subgrade humidity field. Some key for-
E i = (1 − λ ) E i − 1 + λEci (4) mulations can be referred to our previous research [32]. As shown in
Fig. 4, 2D symmetric pavement structures analyzed in this section
i th i-1
where E is the elastic modulus output from the i iteration; E is the consist of 0.78-m pavement surface layer, a 7-m subgrade with the
elastic modulus output from the (i − 1)th iteration; λ is the damping slope rate of 1:1.5, and a 2-m foundation. The pavement width is set as
factor (e.g., initial λ is 0.9); Eci is the elastic modulus computed from Eq. 12.5 m and the groundwater level line is set at 1 m considering the
(1) at the ith iteration. actual situation. The pavement surface layer is assumed to be im-
According to the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, the initial com- pervious to water. In numerical simulation and calculation, meteor-
puted stresses were adjusted so that the yield stress of the material will ological parameters, hydraulic properties of soil, and thermal properties
not be exceeded. The cumulative error of the numerical calculation was of soil should be obtained. In GEOSTUDIO, the Fredlund and Xing
controlled to be within 0.5%. At the same time, the convergence cri- model [33] was used to characterize the soil-water characteristic curve
terion used in this study was determined as shown in Eq. (5). (SWCC) of materials, which are shown in Eq. (6). The model parameters
were obtained through the laboratory tests. Table 3 lists the Hydraulic
|E i − E i − 1|
Error i = ⩽ 5% and thermal parameters of each structure layer. The meteorological
Ei (5)
data collected from the field meteorological stations are presented in
where Errori is the individual error for each node from the ith iteration. Fig. 5 [32].

3
J. Peng, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 120 (2020) 103413

Fig. 2. Flowchart of the developed UMAT subroutine.

ln(1 + ψ/106) ⎞ θs assigned material properties, which do not affect the inputs of humidity
θw = ⎛1 −
field dates. The schematic plot of pavement structures is shown in
⎜ ⎟

ln 2 n m
⎝ ⎠ {ln[e + (ψ/ a) ]} (6)
Fig. 6a. The pavement surface layer contains an 18-cm asphalt mixture,
where θw is the volumetric water content; θs is the saturated volumetric a 40-cm inorganic binder base, and a 20-cm granular subbase. The
water content; ψ is the matric suction; and a, n, and m are fitting subgrade contains an 80-cm roadbed, a 70-cm upper embankment and
coefficients; e is the natural constant. a 550-cm lower embankment. The foundation is 200 cm without sub-
2 division. Meanwhile, Fig. 6b displays the FE model of flexible pavement
⎧ a(σ ) = − 0.005σ + 1.048σ + 46.622
using to analyze moisture and stress-sensitive behavior of subgrade
n(σ ) = 9.64 × 10 - 6σ 2 − 0.0031σ +0.785
⎨ -6 2
soils. The slope areas are not required to be modeled, which is different
⎩ m (σ ) = −1.80 × 10 σ + 0.005σ + 0.889 (7) from Fig. 4. The pavement structures are subjected to a half-sine impact
where σ is the overlying stress. dynamic loading cycles with a loading amplitude of 0.7 MPa (For the
plane problem, the load is converted to 164.8 kPa by the force
equivalent principle). The dynamic loading cycles are used to simulate
3.2. FE model of flexible pavement
the traffic loads acting on the middle of the road surface. The length of
the loading is 30 cm. The pulse duration time is 0.2 s, and rest period is
In order to ensure the accurate import of humidity field dates, the
0.8 s [34]. The 8-node biquadratic elements with reduced integration
size of the FE model should be consistent with Fig. 4. Thus, FE model
are used in the whole finite domain. The interfaces between the asphalt
generated by GEOSTUDIO was imported into ABAQUS as .inp file for
mixture, inorganic binder base, granular subbase and subgrade are
modeling. Meanwhile, the pavement structure was subdivided and

35 A1 35 A1
Field measurement A2 Slope Field measurement A2 Slope
Numerical simulations A3 Numerical simulations A3
30 30
A4 A4
A5 A5
Moisture content (%)
Moisture content (%)

25 B6 B5 B4 B3 B2 B1 25 B6 B5 B4 B3 B2 B1

20 20

15 15

10 10

5 5

0 0
A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6
a. Vertical measurement points b. Horizontal measuring points
Fig. 3. Comparison between field measurement and numerical simulations values.

4
J. Peng, et al.
Fig. 4. Schematic plot of pavement structures.
assumed to be fully bonded. All the input parameters of pavement
structure materials were obtained from laboratory tests, as displayed in
Table 4 [26]. Considering the emphasis of this research is the influence
of humidity and stress on subgrade soils, the mechanical behavior of the
asphalt mixture, inorganic binder base, granular subbase, and founda-
tion are characterized by the linear elastic model to simplify the cal-
culation. The nonlinear properties of subgrade soils are also presented
in Table 4.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. The distribution of moisture within subgrade
In order to study the variation rule of humidity field in subgrade
with time, the variation of moisture content in 9 places are drawn in the
15-year operation period according to the design life of flexible pave-
ments in China by simulation of humidity field, as shown in Fig. 7. It
can be seen that since the completion of the construction, the moisture
content in each place increases gradually with the passage of time.
About 3 years later, the moisture content of subgrade reaches a relative
equilibrium state, and it fluctuates periodically near the equilibrium
moisture content. Finally, the equilibrium moisture contents ranges
from 19.8% to 22.7%, which are more than 27% higher than the con-
struction moisture content of 14.3–16.8%. Meanwhile, it can be seen
from the variation of moisture content in each place that the closer the
surface of slope, the greater the fluctuation in moisture content, in-
dicating that the place near the slope is significantly affected by cli-
matic conditions. Under the same vertical section (e.g. A1, A2 and A3),
the moisture content gradually increases from top to down, that is, the
closer to the groundwater, the higher the moisture content. Meanwhile,
the moisture content in the same horizontal section is also significantly
different. The closer to the slope, the greater the moisture content,
which caused by abundant rain in the location. As analyzed above, the
variation of humidity in the subgrade is very complicated. Thus, in the
design of the flexible pavements, the non-uniform distributed moisture
content of the subgrade must be fully considered.
Table 3
Hydraulic and thermal parameters of structure layer.
Structure layer Saturated moisture content Hydraulic conductivity (m/
(%) s)
−14
Pavement surface layer – 1.0 × 10
Subgrade 26.3 1.15 × 10−8
Foundation Value of groundwater 4.75 × 10−6
Note: a(σ), n(σ) and m(σ) are related to the overlying stress, which can be obtained from Eq. (7).
Computers and Geotechnics 120 (2020) 103413
4.2. The distribution of resilient modulus with stress and humidity
In order to investigate the effect of moisture content of subgrade
soils on the resilient modulus, the distribution of resilient modulus (i.e.,
SDV5) within the subgrade under four different humidity distribution
conditions is simulated in the numerical model, as shown in Fig. 8. The
figure displays that the resilient modulus of subgrade soils in the vici-
nity of load area are significantly less than those far away the load area.
This is because the subgrade soils are modeled as a stress-softening
material. Meanwhile, the comparison among Fig. 8a–d demonstrates
that the model-predicted resilient modulus of subgrade soils is sensitive
to the moisture condition. It is seen that the increasing moisture content
of subgrade significantly reduces the moduli of subgrade soils. A further
observation shows that the resilient modulus on the top of subgrade at
the equilibrium humidity state is reduced by 18.8% compared to the
initial state. In addition, it is shown that the modulus of subgrade soils
decreases first and then increases from the top to the bottom of sub-
grade, which indicates the stress state and humidity state vary together
in subgrade.
In the design of flexible pavements in China, the layers of the pa-
vement structure are assumed to be completely continuous elastic
layered. The subgrade provides support for the pavement surface layers,
and its resilient modulus is used as an important parameter for flexible
pavement structure design. Therefore, although the resilient modulus
within the subgrade is non-uniformly distributed, it is necessary to
provide a resilient modulus value that reflects the comprehensive re-
sponse of the subgrade in the design of the flexible pavement. Thus, the
definition of the equivalent subgrade modulus was proposed using the
approach of equivalent of deflections in this study [35]. Fig. 9a shows
the approach of equivalent of deflections. The moisture-sensitive and
stress-dependent resilient modulus field correspond to a subgrade
maximum deflection value on top surface, and another constant re-
silient modulus value is assumed for the subgrade, which also corre-
sponds to a subgrade maximum deflection value on top surface. When
the two maximums deflection values are equal, this constant resilient
modulus value is considered to be the equivalent subgrade modulus of
the moisture-sensitive and stress-dependent resilient modulus field. In
Coefficients of SWCC Thermal conductivity Volumetric heat capacity (J/
coefficient m3.℃)
a n m
– 1.010 1.98 × 106
a(σ) n(σ) m(σ) 2.354 2.85 × 106
72.2 1.62 0.48 2.742 2.76 × 106
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J. Peng, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 120 (2020) 103413

50 Maximum temperature 120 Maximum humidity

Relative humidity (%)

Minimum temperature Minimum humidity

Temperature (°C)
40 100
30 80
20 60
10 40
0 20

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (a) Time (a)
a. Temperature b. Relative humidity
6 200
Wind speed (m/s)

Rainfall (mm)
150
4
3 100
2
50
1
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (a) Time (a)
c. Wind speed d. Rainfall
Fig. 5. Field meteorological data.

a. Pavement structures b. FE model

Fig. 6. Structures and FE model of flexible pavement.

Table 4
Parameters of pavement structure materials.
Structure layer Density (kg/m3) Elasticity modulus (MPa) k0 k1 k2 k3 Poisson’s ratio

Asphalt mixture 2400 1400 – 0.20

Inorganic binder base 2300 1300 – 0.25
Granular subbase 2200 500 – 0.25
Roadbed 1991 – 1.91 0.15 0.22 −2.69 0.35
Upper embankment 1971 – 1.56 0.19 0.20 −2.36 0.35
Lower embankment 1884 – 1.28 0.21 0.22 −1.65 0.35
Foundation 1800 60 – 0.35

order to obtain the equivalent subgrade modulus corresponding to basically the same as the resilient modulus value at the midpoint of the
Fig. 8, the equivalent subgrade modulus under different subgrade de- subgrade under the loading midline. Luo [36] also found a similar law,
flection value is described, as shown in Fig. 9. It can be observed that that the resilient modulus at a point of 1/4 to 1/3 away from the
the equivalent subgrade modulus at the equilibrium humidity state is subgrade surface under the loading midline can represent the equiva-
reduced by 17.4% compared to the initial state. An interesting phe- lent subgrade modulus. Further, it is found that the position of a certain
nomenon was found to be that the equivalent subgrade modulus is point inside the subgrade, which modulus can represent the equivalent

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J. Peng, et al.
24
Moisture content (%)
22
20
18 A1
A2
16 A3
14
12
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (a)
Fig. 7. Variations of subgrade moisture content during operation period.
subgrade modulus, is affected by constitutive model, humidity dis-
tribution, and thickness of the subgrade. If the subgrade humidity is
assumed to be uniformly distributed, the conclusion consistent with
that of Luo [36] can be obtained. However, the existing subgrade
parameters of the flexible pavement design method adopt the resilient
modulus on the top of the subgrade. It is obviously less than the actual
modulus value, which can be seen from Fig. 8, and this may cause
conservative design and unnecessary waste. Therefore, compared with
the existing design methods, it is more accurate to design flexible pa-
vement by adopting equivalent subgrade modulus.
4.3. Effect of moisture content of subgrade on pavement responses
The surface deflections under traffic loads are widely used for
evaluating the structural bearing capacity of the pavement structure in
China. Here, the surface deflection profiles at different humidity fields
condition are plotted in Fig. 10a. An increase of the deflection basin
area with the initial humidity field condition to the equilibrium hu-
midity field condition can be clearly observed. The maximum deflec-
tions from the initial state to state of 1 year, state of 1 year to state of
2 years, and state of 2 years to equilibrium humidity state, increase by
7.1%, 3.4% and 0.4% respectively. Similar results were observed by
Liao et al. [17]. Some representative dynamic responses of the
a. Initial state (Pa)
c. State of 2 years (Pa)
Fig. 8. Resilient modulus distribution in subgrade.
Computers and Geotechnics 120 (2020) 103413
pavement construction, such as the tensile stress at the bottom of in-
organic binder base, and the compressive strains on the top of subgrade,
are compared in Fig. 10b and c. Figures show that the tensile stress at
B1 C1 the bottom of inorganic binder base and compressive strains on the top
B2 C2 of subgrade increases greatly with initial humidity field condition to the
B3 C3
equilibrium humidity field condition. It implies that the increase of
moisture content of subgrade accelerates failure of the pavement
structure, such as premature fatigue cracking in the surface layer and
excessive permanent deformation (rutting) of the subgrade. In sum-
mary, the detrimental effect on pavement performance due to the
variation of subgrade humidity field is remarkable.
5. Conclusions
This study developed the FE models to simulate the nonlinear
moisture and stress-sensitive characteristics of subgrade soils in flexible
pavements structures. The major findings of this study were summar-
ized as follows.
(1) A moisture-sensitive and stress-dependent resilient modulus con-
stitutive model (Eq. (1)) was successfully implemented in numerical
simulation by means of UMAT subroutine in code ABAQUS. The
resilient modulus constitutive model can characterize nonlinear
moisture and stress-sensitive relationship of subgrade soils and was
verified by triaxial test.
(2) A convergence criterion for the UMAT subroutine was developed by
the secant stiffness technique and the Mohr-Coulomb failure cri-
terion. Two FE software (GEOSTUDIO and ABAQUS) and a
mathematics software (MATLAB) were adopted to implement the
FE model. GEOSTUDIO was used to calculate the humidity field of
subgrade. Then, the humidity field values were imported into
ABAQUS through MATLAB. Meanwhile, the humidity field values
were verified by field measurement.
(3) Based on the results of numerical simulations, the variations of
moisture content within subgrade were analyzed. The moisture
content presents non-uniform distribution in both vertical and
b. State of 1 year (Pa)
d. Equilibrium humidity state (Pa)
7
J. Peng, et al. Computers and Geotechnics 120 (2020) 103413

b. Equivalent subgrade modulus under different

a. Approach of equivalent of deflections
subgrade deflection
Fig. 9. Determination of equivalent subgrade modulus.

horizontal directions. Under the same vertical section, the moisture (5) The equivalent subgrade modulus using the approach of equivalent
content gradually increases from top to down. Meanwhile, in the of deflections was proposed. Meanwhile, an interesting phenom-
same horizontal section, the closer to the slope, the greater the enon was found to be that the equivalent subgrade modulus can be
moisture content, which caused by abundant rain in the location. represented by the resilient modulus of a certain point inside the
(4) It is found that the resilient modulus of subgrade soils in the vicinity subgrade under the loading midline. Compared with the existing
of load area are significantly larger than those far away the load design methods, it is more accurate to adopt the equivalent sub-
area. This is because the subgrade soils are modeled as a stress- grade modulus for flexible pavement design.
softening material. The modulus of subgrade soils decreases first (6) The surface deflection, the tensile stress at the bottom of inorganic
and then increases from the top to the bottom of subgrade, which binder base, and the compressive strains on the top of subgrade
indicates the stress state and humidity state vary together in sub- increase greatly with the initial humidity field condition to the
grade. equilibrium humidity field condition.

Horizontal distance from load center (m)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
100
Surface deflection (μm)

200

300

400
Initial state
500 State of 1 year
State of 2 years
Equilibrium humidity state
600
a. Surface Deflections

36 120
of inorganic binder base (kPa)
Tensile stress at the bottom

on the top of subgrade (με)

32 110
Compressive strains

28 100

24 90

20 80
Initial State of State of Equilibrium Initial State of State of Equilibrium
state 1 year 2 years humidity state state 1 year 2 years state
b. Tensile stress at the bottom of inorganic binder c. Compressive strains on the top of subgrade
base
Fig. 10. Effect of moisture content of subgrade on pavement responses.

8
J. Peng, et al.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Junhui Peng: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation,
Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing -
original draft. Junhui Zhang: Formal analysis, Funding acquisition,
Project administration, Writing - review & editing. Jue Li: Software,
Data curation, Supervision. Yongsheng Yao: Supervision,
Visualization. Anshun Zhang: Data curation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The work presented in this paper was supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51878078,
51911530215), the National Key Research and Development Program
of China (Grant No. 2017YFC0805307), the Excellent Youth
Foundation of Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant
No. 2018JJ1026), the Key Project of Education Department of Hunan
Province (Grant No. 17A008), the Hunan Provincial Innovation
Foundation for Postgraduate (Grant No. CX2018B529), the Open
Research Fund of Science and Technology Innovation Platform of State
Engineering Laboratory of Highway Maintenance Technology,
Changsha University of Science & Technology (Grant No. kfj150103),
the Open Fund of Engineering Research Center of Catastrophic
Prophylaxis and Treatment of Road & Traffic Safety of Ministry of
Education (Changsha University of Science & Technology) (Grant No.
kfj170405), and the Youth Scientific Research Foundation, Central
South University of Forestry and Technology (Grant No. QJ2018008B).
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