PRIMA 100

Compaction and Design Program

More information: www.prima100.com

Produced and supplied by:

Grontmij A/S, Pavement Consultants
Kokbjerg 5, DK-6000 Kolding

www.prima100.com
info@prima100.dk
PRIMA 100

Compaction and Design Program

DOCUMENT CHANGE RECORD

Issue Date Changes Approved
(e.g. change notes, amendments, software function change)

1 June 2008 First issue of revised manual P.-E.

Jakobsen

2 Aug. 2008 Second issue of revised manual P.-E.

Jakobsen

3 May 2011 Third issue change of name H. Schøler

User manual: PRIMA 100 LWD

© Grontmij A/S, Pavement Consultants

This edition was first published in 2008

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publishers.
Printed in Denmark by Grontmij A/S

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PRIMA 100

Compaction and Design Program

Description of data entering fields and calculation fields

A: Enter contact pressure in KPa

B: Enter load plate radius in mm
C: Enter number of layers in the pavement structure (1-4)
D: Calculated values for the total deflection of the entire structure in µm (1/1000 mm) and
surface E modulus in MPa are displayed in this field.
E: Enter material thickness in mm. Please note, that subsoil thickness is not indicated.
F: Enter material E modulus and subsoil surface E modulus.
G: Enter Poisson’s ratio for the individual layer/ - material.
H: Deflections of the individual layers in the pavement structure are read here.

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PRIMA 100

Compaction and Design Program

Field of application
In most countries pavement structures etc. are designed on the basis of the allowable tensile stress on the
lower side of the asphalt layer and the allowable pressure on the top side of the unbound layers at a given
traffic load (standard axles in the design period).

Quality control in connection with dimensioning:

PRIMA 100 is well suited for determination of e.g. subsoil E modulus. After having found the subsoil E
modulus, the pavement structure can be designed according to above-mentioned parameters. Knowing the
pavement structure, the program can calculate the surface E modulus required for the individual layers and
for more layers at a time.

Determination of material E modulus:

The program is also capable of determining the material E modulus. To do this, the program must know the
subsoil E modulus or the sublaying layer E modulus and the thickness of the layer for which to determine the
E modulus.

Example no. 1:
The surface E modulus measured in the example is 50 MPa for the subbase and for the second layer an E
modulus of 129 MPA was found with Ø300 mm load plate and contract pressure of 100 KPa.

Various values are now

entered in the field for the
second layer material E
modulus (red frame).

In this example the value of

the second layer is
determined to 250 MPa.

Please note: Correct

indication of the radius is
important.

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PRIMA 100

Compaction and Design Program

Example No. 2:
The surface E modulus in this example is also 50 MPa for the subsoil and for the second layer a surface E
modulus of 129 MPa has been measured with a load plate of Ø300 mm, a contact pressure of 100 KPa and
a layer thickness of 300 mm.

The required surface E

modulus of the second
layer is 160 MPa. The
task is then to
determine the thickness
of layer 2 in order to
comply with the 160
MPa.

The 160 MPa are

achieved by increasing
the thickness of layer 2
to 500 mm.

Example 2 only illustrates one solution. Another possibility to consider would be to achieve a higher subsoil
E modulus by building in a material with a higher E modulus or to investigate, whether a higher subsoil E
modulus would be achieved by using a geo grid or by removing subsoil material. Common for all examples
are that PRIMA 100 shows the results while making the measurements.

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