Pavement Analysis and Design UNIT-1

Lecture Notes-5

Material Characteristics:
For Design purposes it is required that the various pavement materials are assigned strength
parameters suitable to the design methods employed for the purpose. The strength values are
evaluated by
a) California Bearing ratio method
b) Elastic modulii method.
CBR method can be conducted both in the lab and field. The strength values so obtained for
the materials tested by CBR method are of relative significance and do not provide any
absolute measure. In Elastic modulii test, Plate bearing test is conducted for assessing the
strength characteristics. How the materials are performing when they are subjected to a
certain loading condition can be found by these tests.

Environmental Characteristics:
Height of the Embankment and its foundation details, depth of cutting, depth of sub grade,
water table etc. will affect the performance of the pavement. The choice of the bituminous
binder, performance of bituminous binder pavements depends on the variations in the
pavement temperature with respect to seasonal changes in the region. Warping stresses in the
rigid pavements and daily variations in temperature in the region and the maximum
difference in the temperature between the top and bottom of the pavement slab are also
crucial. In case of semi-rigid pavement materials the formation of shrinkage cracks, pattern
and the mode of propagation and fatigue behavior under adverse conditions of hair crack are
to be studied in arriving rational method of design.

Other Factors:
Other factors include Climatic variations, Soil characteristics etc. Climatic factors cause
following major effects.
a) Variation in moisture condition
b) Frost action
c) Variation in temperature.
The pavement is very much affected by the variation in moisture and frost. This is mainly
because of the variations in stability and the volume of the sub grade soil. Due to variations in

U.ARUN KUMAR Dept.of Civil Engineering - GMRIT

Pavement Analysis and Design UNIT-1

Lecture Notes-5
temperature there is a change in properties of pavement materials like the bitumen and the
cement concrete. Moisture content causes considerable variations in the index and
engineering properties of the soil. Surface water during rains may enter the sub grade through
pavement edges or through the pavement itself if it is porous.

Failure criteria:

Failure of the pavements can occur because of many factors like Design load, Soil
characteristics, improper binding materials, traffic characteristics etc. Failure in both the
pavements will depends on various factors .In flexible pavements as they possess
low/negligible flexural strength the deformation of lower layers is carried on to the surface of
the top layer. If lower layer is undulated the flexible pavement surface also gets undulated
.The load spreading ability of the pavement layers depends upon the type of materials and
mix design factors. Similarly in rigid pavements the slab action is capable of transmitting the
wheel load stresses through a wider area below. They do not get deformed to the shape of the
lower layer surface as it can bridge the minor gaps.

U.ARUN KUMAR Dept.of Civil Engineering - GMRIT