Pavement Design: Tutorial 1

1. Compute the stresses and the surface deflection from a tire inflated to 750 KPa, carrying
40 KN resting on a semi-infinite elastic space. The location of interest is at a depth of 0.25
m and a radial offset of 0.25 m. Given E=150 Mpa and µ=0.35.

2. Design the thickness of a flexible pavement by Burmeister’s two-layer analysis for a wheel
load of 40 KN and a tyre pressure of 0.5 MN/m2. The modulus of elasticity of the pavement
material is 120 MN/m2 and that of the subgrade is 12 MN/m2. The allowable deflection is
0.5 cm. The value of Fw for E1/E2 of 10 can be taken as under:

Thickness of top layer 0.5a 1.0a 2.0a

Fw 0.8 0.5 0.3

3. A soil subgrade has the following data: Soil portion passing 75 μm sieve = 60%, liquid
limit = 45% and Plastic limit = 20%. The traffic volume can be anticipated as over 300
commercial vehicles per day. Find out the thickness of pavement required for above soil
subgrade by Group Index method.

4. Design the pavement section by Triaxial test method using the following data: wheel load
= 5100 kg, Radius of contact area = 15 cm, Traffic coefficient, X = 1.5, rainfall coefficient,
Y = 0.9, Design deflection, Δ = 0.25 cm, E-value of subgrade soil Es= 100 kg/cm2, E-value
of base course material Eb = 400 kg/cm2, E for 7.5 cm thick bituminous concrete Surface
course = 1000 kg/cm2. Also draw the pavement section with base course. Assume the
pavement consists of a single layer of base course material.

5. Calculate the deflection at the surface of a pavement due to a wheel load of 45 KN and a
tire pressure of 0.6 MN/m2. The value of E of the pavement and subgrade may be assumed
to be uniformly equal to 20 MN/m2.

6. Design the thickness of a flexible pavement by Burmeister’s two-layer analysis for a wheel
load of 45 KN and a tire pressure of 0.7 KN/m2. The modulus of elasticity of the pavement
material is 150 MN/m2 and that of subgrade is 30 MN/m2. The value of Fw the displacement
factor can be taken from the graph.

7. Design the pavement section by semi empirical (triaxial) method using the following data:

Wheel load= 4200 Kg

Radius of contact area= 20 cm
Traffic coefficient X= 1.5
Rainfall coefficient Y= 0.9
Design deflection 𝛥 = 0.25 𝑐𝑚
E for base course material Eb=400 Kg/cm2
 E for subgrade soil Es=400 Kg/cm2
E for 7.5 cm thick bituminous concrete surface course= 1000 Kg/cm2

8. Soil subgrade sample collected from the site was analyzed and the results obtained are as
given below:
Soil portion passing 0.075 mm sieve, percent=45
Liquid limit percent=45
Plastic limit percent=25
Design the pavement section by GI method for the anticipated traffic volume of over 400
commercial vehicles per day.

9. A road pavement is to be designed for a stretch of road with the following pavement layers:
(i) Minimum thickness of asphalt concrete on the surface course = 50 mm
(ii) well graded crushed stone aggregate for base course, CBR value = 90%
(iii) Fairly graded gravel for sub-base course, CBR value = 20%
(iv) Compacted Soil, CBR value = 10%
(v) 90th percentile sub grade CBR value = 4% The road has single lane carriage way
and caters present ADT of 1200 commercial vehicle per day with annual growth of
6%. The pavement is to be designed for a 10 years period with 3 years construction
period. Design the pavement section using IRC recommendation of CBR method.
The road is to be compacted within 6 months from the initial traffic count.

10. Design the flexible pavement using CBR curve with the help of the following data:
a) Subgrade soil (soaked) CBR = 5%
b) Laterite sub-base (soaked) CBR = 15%
c) water bound macadam base CBR = 95%
d) Number of heavy traffic per day in May 2023 = 150
e) Design Life = 15 years
f) Annual rate of increase in heavy vehicles = 5%. The road is purposed to be completed in
may 2028. (Use CBR curve for design)

11. Design the pavement for an existing two-lane single carriageway road with the following
details: a) Initial traffic in both direction in the year of completion of construction = 5640
cvpd
b) Design life = 10 years
c) Design CBR value = 6%
d) Axle load using the road (CV) = 118 KN
e) annual growth rate =5 % (use IRC guidelines)

12. In the figure below, a pavement system with the resilient moduli, layer coefficient of
surface course and drainage coefficients are shown. If predicted ESAL = 15 x 106, R =
90%, So = 0.4, present serviceability index = 4.2 and terminal serviceability index = 2.7,
select the thickness of D1, D2, and D3. MR =5700 psi.
 D1
E1 = 450,000 psi a1 = 0.44
D2
E2 = 25,000 psi m2 = 1.2

E3 = 15,000 psi m3 = 1.2 D3

13. Design a two-lane flexible pavement for a road expected to carry 2100 commercial
vehicles per day at the time of construction with an expected growth rate of 3 %. Assume
each commercial vehicle contributes 0.72 standard 80KN axles. The design life is 30
years and the subgrade CBR is 4%. Design the flexible pavement as per road note 29.

14. A Flexible pavement for urban interstate Highway is to be designed using the 1993
AASHTO guide procedure to carry a design ESAL of 10 *106. It is estimated that it takes
about one day for water to be drained from within the pavement and the pavement
structure will be exposed to moisture levels approaching saturation for 30% of the time.
The following additional information is available:
a) Resilient modulus of asphalt concrete=400000 psi
b) Resilient modulus of base course = 30000 psi
c) Resilient modulus of subbase course = 14000 psi
d) Resilient modulus of subgrade = 5000 psi
e) Reliability =90 %, standard deviation=0.35, Serviceability Loss=2.0