Disclaimer: This lecture and the other course materials are being

distributed as different parts of the CE782A course, titled “Anal-

ysis of bituminous pavements” for the 2020-21 Semester I at IIT
Kanpur. All these course materials are only meant for the stu-
dents registered in this course. And as a registered student in this
course, you are making a promise that no part of these lecture
materials can be distributed, shared or, uploaded anywhere with
anyone outside this course.

Analysis of an elastic multi-layered struc-

ture

We are idealizing bituminous pavement as multi-layered elastic struc-

ture (refer to Figure 28). There are a total of n number of layers,
and the elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio and thickness of any ith
layer are identified as Ei , νi and hi , respectively. Note that the
nth layer (subgrade) is a half-space, and other layers have finite
thickness, and may be called as Burmister’s layers32 . It is assumed
that a uniform load (po ) is acting on a circular area of radius a
(representative of tyre imprint) on the surface.

Formulation

The Equation 43 should hold for each of the layers, if we do not

deviate from the assumptions made to develop the equation33 . The
form of the φ function can generally be34 the same except that
the constants may be different for the different layers, and these
constants can be derived from the geometry and loading condition
of this specific problem.
32
After the name of D. M. Burmister who proposed a solution to this problem
during 1940s.
33
Linear, elastic, homogeneous, isotropic continuum media with no body force
subjected to small strain
34
may not always be, for example see Ioannides and Khazanovich 1998.

42
Figure 28: A multi-layered structure pavement structure represent-
ing bituminous pavement

The following φ function is used for this analysis (and it satisfies

the bi-harmonic condition, Equation 43), written in cylindrical co-
ordinate system.

φi (m) = A (m)emz − B i (m)e−mz

 i

+C i (m)zemz − Di (m)ze−mz Jo (mr)


(66)

where, Jo is the Bessel function of 0th order, Ai (m), B i (m), C i (m)

and Di (m) are coefficients for the ith layer, r is the radial distance
and z is the depth, and m is any number35 . Now the boundary
conditions are discussed in the following.
35
The implication of the use of m will become clearer when we’ll talk about
application of superposition for reaching the final solution

43
At the surface

At the surface, the vertical stress in the circular region will be equal
to pressure, and shear stress will be equal to zero36 . That is,

σz1,t = −po for 0 ≤ r ≤ a

= 0 otherwise (67)
1,t
τrz = 0

where, σz1,t indicates σz at the top (superscript t is used for this) of

the first layer (i = 1), and so on.

At the interface

We can define the interface is the zero thickness boundary between

two adjacent layers. We can think that ith interface will have the
ith layer just above it and (i + 1)th layer just below it.

The interface can be bonded or unbonded. Most of the time bitumen

(say, in emulsion form) is used for bonding purpose between the two
layers at the time of construction.

For perfectly bonded interface (we also call as perfectly rough inter-
face), the adjacent layers will undergo same horizontal deflection.
Thus, the boundary conditions for ith interface can be written as,

i,b i+1,t
σzz = σzz
ω i,b = ω i+1,t (68)
i,b i+1,t
τrz = τrz
ui,b = ui+1,t
36
If, of course, we assume that no shear stress is applied

44
Sometimes, some interface can be unbonded37 . For perfectly un-
bonded interface (we also call as perfectly smooth interface), the
layers will undergo differential horizontal deflection (that is, ui,b 6=
ui+1,t ) – but this is not quite helpful a boundary condition from
the point of view of solving the problem. But, we also note that
the shear stresses will get dissipated at the interface. Thus, the
boundary conditions can be identified as,

σzi,b = σzi+1,t
ω i,b = ω i+1,t (69)
i,b
τrz = 0
i+1,t
τrz = 0

At infinite depth

At infinite depth the stresses and displacements all are zero, and we
can write,

σzn,b = σrn,b = σθn,b = τrz

n,b
=0
n,b n,b
u =ω =0 (70)

Solution

For the φ function chosen, and for a n-layered structure, there will
be 4n unknowns. An n-layered structure has (n − 1) interfaces.
Thus, from Equation 68 or 69 (as the case may be) one obtains
4(n − 1) equations, and the Equations 67 and 70 provide additional
four equations.
37
For example, an interface between bituminous layer and a cemented/ con-
crete layer is expected to remain unbonded, unless some additional effort is
spend ensure bonding between these

45
Using Equations 44-47, the stresses, at any ith layer, are calculated
as follows38 ,

σ̂zi = −mJo (mr) Ai (m)m2 emz + B i (m)m2 e−mz



−C i (m)m(1 − 2µi − mz)emz + Di (m)m(1 − 2µi + mz)e−mz



σ̂ri = mJo (mr) Ai (m)m2 emz + B i (m)m2 e−mz + C i (m)m(1 + 2µi + mz)emz


 J1 (mr)  i
−Di (m)m(1 + 2µi − mz)e−mz − A (m)m2 emz
r
+B i (m)m2 e−mz + C i (m)m(1 + mz)emz − Di (m)m(1 − mz)e−mz (71)


J1 (mr)  i
σ̂θi = A (m)m2 emz + B i (m)m2 e−mz
r
+C i (m)m(1 + mz)emz − Di (m)m(1 − mz)e−mz


+2µi mJo (mr) C i (m)memz − Di (m)me−mz

 

i
= mJ1 (mr) Ai (m)m2 emz − B i (m)m2 e−mz

τ̂rz
+C i (m)m(2µi + mz)emz + Di (m)m(2µi − mz)e−mz


Note that a hat sign (ˆ) is used in the above for each expression
of stress. This is because the above Equation 71 does not exactly
provide the correct expressions for stresses, and we’ll realize this
just in the next paragraph.

By putting z = 0 and with appropriate choice of the constants

A1 (m), B 1 (m), C 1 (m) and D1 (m), we obtain σ̂z1,t = −mJo (mr),
while we expect it to be as per Equation 67 (representing the load-
ing condition shown in Figure 28). That means, the expressions for
stresses reported in Equation 71 are for loading type −mJo (mr),
and hence we need to convert it to loading type presented in Equa-
tion 67 by using some transformation. This is done by using Henkel’r
transformation. Henkel’s transformation is introduced in the follow-
ing.
38
Please make no attempt to remember these equations. We are just learning
the principles here.

46
If f (r) and f (m) are a pair of functions, then their Henkel transform
can be written as,
Z ∞
f (m) = rJo (mr)f (r)dr (72)
0

Z ∞
f (r) = mJo (mr)f (m)dm (73)
0

Let’s assume f (r) = −po for 0 ≤ r ≤ a as in Equation 67. Thus,

using Equation 72 one can write,

Z a Z ∞
f (m) = − po rJo (mr)dr + 0dr
0 a
po a
= − J1 (ma) (74)
m

And putting back f (m) in Equation 73 one obtains,

Z ∞  pa 
o
f (r) = mJo (mr) − J1 (ma) dm
0 m
Z ∞
J1 (ma)
= po a (−mJo (mr)) dm (75)
0 m

So, the function f (r) = −po for 0 ≤ r ≤ a can also be expressed as

R∞
f (r) = po a 0 (−mJo (mr)) J1 (ma)
m
dm.

Now recall that solutions presented in Equation 71 is for loading

type −mJo (mr). Thus, by taking help of the Equation 75, we obtain
the final expressions for stresses as,

47
 Z ∞
J1 (ma)
σzi = po a σ̂zi dm
0 m
Z ∞
i J1 (ma)
σ r = po a σ̂ri dm
0 m
Z ∞
i J1 (ma)
σθ = po a σ̂θi dm (76)
0 m
Z ∞
i i J1 (ma)
τrz = po a τ̂rz dm
0 m

Thus, the purpose of m is to numerically perform this transform so

as to obtain the stresses for the present loading conditions. As ap-
parent from the above formulation, closed-form solution is difficult
to obtain, and thus, the stress values are computed using numer-
ical methods. In numerical terms the process of integration with
increasing m value is terminated once the value of a given stress
stabilizes.

Closing remarks

The above formulation can be used for computing the stress-strain-

deflection anywhere within the bituminous pavement structure due
to static load, subject to the various assumptions already stated. I’ll
try to show you a working example of a layered-analysis software.

From the computational results it can be seen that stress or strain

at given point within the pavement structure decreases if elastic
modulus or the thickness of any layer (it does not matter whether
the layer is above or below the point under consideration, because
all the layers are participating in load sharing) is increased.

48
Further reading

Narzary, B. K., and Ahamad, K. U., Equivalent modulus for fine-

grained subgrade soil, Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part
B: Pavements, 146(2), 2020.

Burmister, D. M., The general theory of stresses and displacements

in layered soil systems, I, II, and III. Journal of Applied Physics,
16. 1945, pp. 84-94 (I), 126-127 (II), 296-302 (III).

Ioannides, A. M., and Khazanovich, L., General formulation for

multilayered pavement systems, Journal of Transportation Engi-
neering, 124(1), 1998, pp.82-90.

49