Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Information listed in this lecture is mainly taken from AASHTO Guide for Design of
Pavement Structures (AASHTO, 1993), Traffic and Highway Engineering (Garber,
2009), Asphalt Pavements (Lavin, 2003), Pavement Analysis and Design (Huang,
2004), http://www.pavementinteractive.org (Accessed on 2015) and Highways
(O’Flaherty, 2007).
A- General
Design Considerations
The factors considered in the AASHTO procedure for the design of rigid pavements
as presented in the 1993 guide are
• Pavement performance
• Subgrade strength
• Subbase strength
• Traffic
• Concrete properties
• Drainage
• Reliability
Subbase Strength. Subbase thickness is usually not less than 6 in. and should be
extended 1 to 3 ft outside the edge of the pavement structure.
Traffic. The treatment of traffic load is similar to that presented for flexible
pavements, in that the traffic load application is given in terms of the number of
18,000 lb equivalent single-axle loads (ESALs). ESAL factors depend on the slab
thickness and the terminal serviceability index of the pavement.
Tables below give ESAL factors for rigid pavements with a terminal serviceability
index of 2.5. Since the ESAL factor depends on the thickness of the slab, it is
therefore necessary to assume the thickness of the slab at the start of the
computation. This assumed value is used to compute the number of accumulated
ESALs, which in turn is used to compute the required thickness. If the computed
thickness is significantly different from the assumed thickness, the accumulated
ESAL should be recomputed. This procedure should be repeated until the assumed
and computed thicknesses are approximately the same.
Lecture 17 225 Dr. Firas Asad
Highway Eng. Design of Rigid Pavements 14 –15
Reinforcing Steel
Steel reinforcing may be used in concrete pavements to reduce the amount of
cracking that occurs, as a load transfer mechanism at joints, or as a means of tying
two slabs together. Steel reinforcement used to control cracking is usually referred
to as temperature steel, whereas steel rods used as load transfer mechanisms are
known as dowel bars, and those used to connect two slabs together are known as
tie bars.
Lecture 17 226 Dr. Firas Asad
Highway Eng. Design of Rigid Pavements 14 –15
Concrete Properties. The concrete property is given in terms of its flexural strength
(modulus of rupture) at 28 days. The flexural strength at 28 days of the concrete to
be used in construction should be determined by conducting a three-point loading
test as specified in AASHTO Designation T97.
Reliability. Reliability considerations for rigid pavement are similar to those for
flexible pavement as presented in the previous lecture. Reliability levels, R%, and
the overall standard deviation, So, are incorporated directly in the design charts.
The design equation above can be solved for the thickness of the pavement (D) in
inches by using either a computer program or the two design charts in the next
pages. The use of a computer program facilitates the iteration necessary, since D has
to be assumed to determine the effective modulus of subgrade reaction and the
ESAL factors used in the design.