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Design of Port-and Industrial Pavements

Article · April 2014

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Design of Port- and Industrial Pavements
- English version of the paper "Dimensionering af havne- og industribelægninger", published in the
Danish Road Magazine (Trafik & Veje), April 2014

Author: Civil Engineer
Asmus Skar, COWI A/S,
asch@cowi.dk
There are presently few recognized technical guidelines available for structural design
and evaluation of port- and industrial pavements. This fact makes the job of the
pavement design consultant a difficult task when considering structural design of
pavements subjected to heavy duty loads. To overcome this problem COWI A/S in co-
operation with The Technical University of Denmark has launched an IndustrialPhD-
project with the goal to develop new methods and prepare recommendations for new
port- and industrial pavement design guidelines and standards in the future. The project
will deal with a mechanistic model approach in an attempt to create more general
models and systems for design. General mechanistic models will improve the
understanding of the mechanical behaviour of pavement materials when subjected to
loading and increase the possibility for optimization and application of new pavement
types. The project will be carried out by the Author and is supported by The Danish
Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation and COWIfonden.

Figure 1 – Biggest in the world: Shanghai container terminal is presently the largest in the world handling app. 30 million equivalent twenty feet
containers (TEU) per year. For comparison Denmark's largest port, Copenhagen and Malmö Port (CMP), handles app. 0,25 million TEU's per year.

Background to the fatigue lifetime of the pavement is based on

Ports- and industries require special types of
pavements to resist the heavy static loads form
containers and continuous loads from vehicles.
Typically, asphalt or concrete block pavement
systems is applied over a stiff layer of cement bound
material (CBM) to reduce the risk of rutting and
settlements over time.
Structural design and evaluation of such pavements
is traditionally based on highway technology,
however, the loads in ports- and industries are much
higher, for some areas static and the traffic load
pattern diverge from traditional load patterns on
highway and road pavements.
Technical guidelines for structural design of port-
and industry pavements are based on a
phenomenological (S-N) approach for description of
the pavement materials deterioration. This approach
the endurance concept, in which the numbers of
cycles to failure is correlated with the applied
stresses and strains (response) through empirical
constants.
The method is practical and simple because it gives
the user direct analytical expressions, however, such
empirically based material models has only limited
applicability. This type of model does not
distinguish between crack initiation and crack
propagation or elastic and inelastic work (e.g. plastic
work), model parameters are simply regression
constants without physical meaning. Furthermore,
many empirical models are an inseparable part of the
design method, meaning that fatigue laws developed
may only be valid for; one type of pavement system,
a specific area or climatic condition.
The lack of research in this area results in designers
not always knowing how to design port- and
industry pavements properly.
Figure 2 – Asphalt surface damage from container castings.
Container stacking areas are loaded with point loads from app. 7,5
ton to 150 ton with a load pressure of 2,5 to 12,5 MPa. Visit in
Hamburg container terminal (Germany), COWI, 2007
Figure 3 – Damage of concrete block pavement. Areas for handling
of containers is loaded with axels loads up to 120 ton, in addition
comes dynamic factors from unevenness, turning, acceleration and
de-acceleration. Rotterdam port (The Netherlands), 2006 [2].
Structural pavement design methods for ports-
and industries
The traditional approach to pavement design is
commonly divided in two stages; first the critical
response is calculated (stress or strain), which
subsequently is inserted in an analytical-empirical
function that converts it into a measure of
performance.
The most widely used design methodology for ports-
and industries, developed for design of heavy duty
pavements are described in the fourth edition of 'The
Structural Design of Heavy Duty Pavements for
Ports and Other Industries' by Knapton [1]. In this
guideline, the necessary layer thickness of a CBM
C8/10 material is calculated for a standardized
concrete block pavement, applying a linear elastic
response model. The allowable stress levels in the
bottom of the CBM-layer was found based on
catalogue pavements [3], applying the same
response model.
Due to the variation in load types in port- and
industries areas (weight, wheel configuration,
static/dynamic load etc.) all loads is converted to a
critical equivalent load or so-called Single
Equivalent Wheel Load (SEWL). The different load
levels and number of load cycles is incorporated in
the system. If the user chooses to change pavement
system, this can be done applying Method of
Equivalent Thickness (MET), which secure
sufficient total bearing capacity of the structure. The
factors (MEF's) are only valid for a limited number
of known standard materials.
Another and more refined method was proposed by
Rodway og Wardle [4]. Rodway og Wardle applied
data from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
test facility for development fatigue laws based on
the permanent deformation of the subgrade. These
data is valuable to the development of models for
heavy duty pavements such as port- and industry
pavements because of the similarity in load
magnitude (aircrafts vs. handling equipment in
ports).
The fatigue laws developed by Rodway and Wardle
diverge from Knapton and many others because it
was based on controlled full-scale testing.
Furthermore, the responses from loads are calculated
at all points across the pavement in order to capture
all the damage contributions of all the vehicle
wheels in all their wandering positions. The findings
from the research of Rodway and Wardle have been
incorporated in the design software HIPAVE [5].
One of the advantages of this program is that
analytical-empirical material models can be
incorporated for each layer type, and vehicles can be
modelled with their actual wheel configurations.
Mechanical models
Among analytical-empirical models developed for
pavement materials (e.g. the Danish Road
Directorate research project documented in [6]),
only few relate to port- and industry pavements.
This can be explained by the complicated load
patterns in ports- and industry areas. The loads are
often a combination of heavy loads from vehicles
and static loads from containers, vehicles that traffic
the pavement in lanes and vehicles that traffic the
pavement in larger areas and unorganized patterns.
Furthermore, the loads are heavier than conventional
road and highway loads and the material behaviour
is non-linear. It is simply too many variations in load
patterns and pavement system to sufficiently
develop analytical-empirical expressions for each
single case.
Because of only few models available and because
of the limitations that the empirical approaches carry
with it; more general mechanical models are needed
to develop material models for ports- and industries.
Mechanical models can based on the primary failure
mechanisms (e.g. cracks or plastic work), describe
how the material deteriorate (e.g. permanent
deformation or decrease in stiffness/E-modulus)
when subjected to loading. Furthermore, mechanical
models are incremental models applicable for
numerical analysis. Numerical analysis is a highly
effective tool when evaluating a wide spectrum of
model parameters in short time. This can result in a
reduction of both economical and time aspects when
developing new pavement types and systems
compared to the empirical approach.
Mechanical models has been developed for a wide
spectrum of materials and become more and more
usual with the increased processing power of
computers, however, in pavement technology this
model approach is still limited. The main reasons for
this can be found in the inhomogeneous nature of
pavement materials and the resulting complex
mechanical behaviour when subjected to load, the
wide spectrum of materials applied in pavement
structures, the relatively large variation of the
material behaviour tested in laboratory compared to
material tested in the field, and last but not least the
load type and climate effects.
Figure 4 – Methodologies from the field of mechanics is applied in
the project in an attempt to develop more general methods and
models: in the figure a stress-deformation curve can be seen for
uniaxial tension test of a concrete test specimen [7]. To the left the
elastic phase (pre-peak) can be seen and to the right the
decreasing (post- peak softening) curve describing the stress-crack
opening relationship.
In addition road, airport, port- and industry
pavement structures are covering large areas, which
result in a natural variation in the material
inhomogeneity and quality. This explains some of
the average assumptions we make and the empirics
applied.
Project idea and purpose
Presently available technical guidelines and systems
for structural design and analysis of port- and
industry pavements is mainly based on empirics,
which means, that important material characteristics
is hidden behind empirical constants for the
available material models described. This fact, make
it nearly impossible to further develop models or
optimize pavement designs for port- and industry
pavements within the presently available framework.
The methods presented in presently available
technical guidelines for structural design of port- and
industry pavements are only valid for standard
structures and a limited number of material types. As
a consequence pavement engineers often select
method, models and theories based on their own
experience. This has an obvious disadvantage; lack
of experience, use of inadequate criteria's and
fatigue laws or other things can lead to erroneous
results. Consultants will often be misled and
influenced by other parties, due to the lack of
accepted methods and standards that can document
their work.
Thus, the purpose of this research project is to
develop new and more general deterioration models
for port- and industry pavements, with special focus
on cement bound materials, as CBM is an essential
component in many port- and industry pavements.
Specifically the project will investigate the
applicability of plasticity models and fracture
mechanic models from the field of concrete
technology, as CBM and concrete have many
material characteristics in common.
Furthermore, the project will evaluate applicable
general systems for development of structural
pavements design and analysis in the future. The
result from this work will be used to prepare specific
recommendations to how available technical
guidelines and standards for port- and industry
pavements should be refined in the future. In this
process, there will be focused on how testing is
performed and which tests is applied for material
characterization. The material characterization tests
(element tests) should be tests of actual physical
properties (E-modulus, tensile strength, fracture
energy etc.), model parameters should give physical
meaning (not only mathematical) and it should be
possible to describe parameters from standardized
tests.
Figure 5 – Test of actual physical material properties is essential if
one want to develop new and more general material models: in
the picture a 4-point bending beam test with cement bound
material (CBM) which is used to determine key mechanical
properties, such as flexural strength and cyclic material
characteristics [8].
The project will apply Finite Element (FE)
techniques and software for numerical modelling of
the pavement deterioration, allowing for
implementation of suitable constitutive models
(approximation of the material behaviour when
subjected to loading) for materials and typical load
models for port- and industry pavements.
Perspectives
The effect of new methods developed, will extend
the state of knowledge, and create a platform from
where it should be possible to develop refined
structural design guidelines that will result in more
cost-effective, innovative and sustainable heavy duty
pavement structures. General mechanical models
will make it easier to test and characterize new
materials e.g. re-cycled materials or waste products
from the industry.
Cost effectiveness and sustainable designs would
benefit a wide spectrum of groups within the port
and industries field, such as; existing ports and
terminals, new ports and terminals, investor and
operators. In addition, new and more generalized
methods would make contractors, consultants,
engineers working with ports and industries more
uniform and competitive. The knowledge gained
from this work can be transferred to both highway
and airport pavements contributing to a change of
mind-set in the branch as a whole; bringing the field
of pavement engineering a step further in its
development.
 References [5] Wardle, L., Rickards, I. and Lancaster, J. "HIPAVE
- A Tool to assist in the Mechanistic Empirical
[1] Knapton, J., "The Structural Design of Heavy Duty
Design of Heavy Duty Industrial Flexible
Pavements for Ports and Other Industries", Edition
Pavements", 10th International Conference on
4, Interpave, December 2008
Asphalt Pavements (ISAP), Quebec, Canada,
[2] Moenielal, M., "Concrete Block Pavements in the August, 2006
Port of Rotterdam, 8th International Conference on
[6] Thøgersen, F. Busch, C. Henrichsen, A.
Concrete Block Paving", November 6-8, 2006 San
"Mechanistic Design of Semi-Rigid Pavements - An
Francisco, California USA
incremental Approach", Danish Road Directorate,
[3] BS 7533-1:2001 "Pavements constructed with clay, Report 138, 2004
natural stone or concrete pavers. Part 1: Guide for
[7] Olesen, J. F. & Poulsen, P. N., "Modeling Concrete
the structural design of heavy duty pavements
Fracture", Lecture Notes, Department of Civil
constructed of clay pavers or precast concrete paving
Engineering, Technical University of Denmark,
blocks", BSI 2001
2011
[4] Rodway, B. and Wardle, L. "Layered Elastic Design
[8] The Development and Evaluation of Protocols for
of Heavy Duty Industrial Pavements", proc. AAPA
the Laboratory Characterisation of Cemented
Pavements Industry Conf., Surfers Paradise,
Materials, AP-T101/08, Ausroads, 2008
Australia, 1998

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