Flexible Pavement Design

Punya Murthy Kathari,

M. Tech (Transp. Engg), MBA (Project Management),

Managing Partner,
KPM CONSULTING ENGINEERS, HYDERABAD

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Components of Flexible pavement structure

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Components of Flexible pavement structure
Wearing Course
Binder Course
Base Course
Sub-Base Course
Subgrade
Subgrade
◦ Upper layer of natural soil
◦ compact it to give added strength.
◦ If local soil is poor, use borrow soil and compact
 Upper 500 mm ( 300 mm for Rural roads) of soil
foundation is regarded as subgrade)

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Components of Flexible pavement structure
(continued)

Sub-base – Aggregate Layer

(moorum/gravel/sand-clay)

◦ Secondary load spreading layer

◦ Serves as working platform for building the layers above
◦ Serves as drainage layer to drain infiltrated water

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Components of Flexible pavement structure
(continued)

Base course - Aggregate Layer

(WBM/WMM/Cement treated)

◦ Main load-spreading layer.

◦ Protects lower layers from excessive stresses

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Components of Flexible pavement structure
(continued)

Binder course (Bituminous Layer viz., DBM, BM)

◦ Takes loads from the binder course

◦ Provides structural stability to the Pavement
◦ Prevent the entry of water to the layers below it.

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Components of Flexible pavement structure
(continued)

Wearing course (uppermost layer)

( normally made of bituminous materials Viz. BC, SDBC)
Provides smooth running surface
◦ Impervious to water
◦ Skid resistant
◦ Should withstand high shear and tensile stresses due to wheel
loads

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Flexible Pavement Design –
Analytical Approach
Estimation of Design Traffic in MSA (ESAL)
Evaluation of Subgrade Strength
 CBR (%) – IRC Method
 Resilient Modulus in psi – AI and AASHTO Methods
Selection of Materials to be used and their Properties (E, µ,
h)
 Elastic Modulus of pavement layers
 Poisson's Ratio of Pavement Layers
 Layer Thickness
Failure Criteria
 Fatigue Cracking at the bottom of bituminous layer
 Rutting on the top of the subgrade
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Flexible Pavement Design –
Analytical Approach (Contd..)
 
Estimate the allowable strains using the failure criteria

 Fatigue Criteria

 Rutting Criteria

 f1, f2, f3, f4 and f5 = Constants

 εt = Tensile strain at the bottom of bituminous layer
 εv = Vertical compressive strain on the top of subgrade
 Nf = Design Traffic to produce limiting fatigue cracking in %
 Nr = Design Traffic to produce limiting depth of rutting in mm
 E* = Dynamic Modulus of Asphalt Mixture
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Fatigue cracking of Bituminous layers

Cracking: failure
Criterion 1

Bituminous layer

Bituminous layer

Granular Base + sub-base

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Subgrade Rutting Failure

Rutting failure
criterion

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Flexible Pavement Design –
Analytical Approach (Contd..)
Estimate the actual strains for a set of Pavement
Compositions for FATIGUE and RUTTING Criteria using
structural models
 FPAVE Software (IRC Method)
 DAMA Software (Asphalt Institute Method)
 Circly Software (AUSTROADS Method)
Ifthe Actual strains are less than the Allowable strains, the
crust provided is OK, otherwise change the crust
composition and repeat the above procedure
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Flexible Pavement Design Process

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Flexible Pavement Design - Methods
Empirical Method (AASHTO 1993)

Mechanistic/Analytical Method (IRC, AI)

Mechanistic-Empirical Methods (AASHTO 2002)

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Flexible Pavement Design – IRC Method
IRC: 37-1984
 Upto Design Traffic of 30 MSA
 Empirical in Nature and has limitations regarding application and
extrapolation
IRC: 37-2001
 Design Traffic of 30 MSA – 150 MSA
 Subgrade CBR 2% to 10%
IRC: 37-2012 (Analytical Procedure)
 Design Traffic of 30 MSA – 150 MSA or more
 Subgrade CBR 2% to 15% or even more
(if CVPD>450, min Subgrade CBR = 8%)
 Reliability – 80% ≤ 30 MSA
 Reliability – 90% > 30 MSA
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Estimation of Design Traffic
 Design Traffic (N) =

Where
N = Cumulative number of Standard Axles to be catered in design in terms of MSA
A = Initial Traffic in the year of completion of Construction in terms of the number of Commercial
Vehicles Per Day (CVPD)
D = Lane Distribution Factor (as per Table 3.3.5 of IRC: 37-2001)
F = Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF – From Axle Load Surveys)
n = Design Life in Years
r = Annual Traffic Growth Rate of Commercial Vehicles

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Estimation of Design Traffic - A
A = Initial Traffic in the year of completion of Construction in terms of the number of Commercial Vehicles
Per Day (CVPD)

What is a Commercial Vehicle?

Gross Vehicle Weight more than 3 Tons

Commercial Vehicles to be Considered in Pavement Design
 Bus,
 Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV),
 2-Axle Truck (2-AT),
 3-Axle Truck (3-AT),
 Multi Axle Vehicle (MAV)

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Commercial Vehicles to be Considered in Pavement Design

LCV Bus 2-AT

3-AT MAV MAV

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Estimation of Design Traffic - D
D = Lane Distribution Factor (as per Cl. 3.3.5 of IRC: 37-2001)

Single Carriageway Roads

Single Lane Roads - 100% of Commercial Vehicles in both directions

2-Lane Single Carriageway Roads - 75% of Commercial Vehicles in both directions
4-Lane Single Carriageway Roads - 40% of Commercial Vehicles in both directions

Dual Carriageway Roads

4-lane Divided CW (dual 2 lane carriageway) - 75% of no. vehicles in each direction
6-lane Divided CW (dual 3 lane carriageway) - 60% of no. vehicles in each direction
8-lane Divided CW (dual 4 lane carriageway) - 45% of no. vehicles in each direction

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 X
3.75 m
Y

Single Lane Road

LDF = D = 100% of Commercial Vehicles

in BOTH directions

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 X

7.0 m
Y

2-Lane Single Carriageway Road

LDF = D = 75% of Commercial Vehicles
in BOTH directions
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 X1

X2
14.0 m

Y1

Y2

4-Lane Single Carriageway Road

LDF = D = 40% of Commercial Vehicles

in BOTH directions

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 X1
7.0 m

X2

MEDIAN (DIVIDER)

Y1
7.0 m

Y2

4-lane Divided CW (dual 2 lane carriageway)

LDF = D = 75% of Commercial Vehicles

in EACH direction
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 X1

X2 10.5 m

X3

MEDIAN (DIVIDER)
Y1
10.5 m
Y2

Y3

6-lane Divided CW (dual 3 lane carriageway)

LDF = D = 60% of Commercial Vehicles

in EACH direction
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 X1

X2
14.0 m
X3

X4
MEDIAN (DIVIDER)
Y1
Y2 14.0 m
Y3
Y4

8-lane Divided CW (dual 4 lane carriageway)

LDF = D = 45% of Commercial Vehicles
in EACH direction
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Estimation of Design Traffic - F
F = Vehicle Damage Factor = Avg. No. of ESAL per Vehicles
ESAL = Equivalent Standard Axle
What is Standard Axle?

Single axle with dual wheels – 80 kN/8.16 Ton/18kiP

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Standard and Legal Axle Weights in India

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How to determine the Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF)?

i.e, No. of Equivalent Standard Axles (ESAL)

Axle Load Surveys

Fourth Power Law

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Axle Load Survey shall be conducted to determine VDF

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VDF – Contd…

Is it
Correct? oops… It is Wrong
Use Fourth Power Law
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 FOURTH POWER LAW
 +

Where, WFA and WRA weight of front and rear axles respectively

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Example of Flexible Pavement Design
 It is proposed to widen an existing two lane National Highway section to 4-Lane divided road.
Design the pavement for ne carriageway with following data:

 DATA:
(i) 4-lane divided carriageway
(ii) Initial Design Traffic in each direction in the year of completion = 5600 CVPD
(iii) Design life = 10 years
(iv) CBR of Subgrade Soil = 5%
(v) Traffic Growth Rate = 8% per annum
(vi) Vehicle Damage Factor = 4.5 (Standard Axles per CV)

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Design Calculations

Given

  Data:
A = Initial Traffic = 5600 CVPD
D = Lane Distribution Factor = 75% from Para 3.3.5 of IRC: 37-2001 = 0.75
F = Vehicle Damage Factor = 4.5
r = Traffic Growth Rate = 8% = 0.08
n = Design Life = 10 years
Subgrade CBR = 5%
 Design Calculations

= 99935551 = 99.935 x 106 = 99.935 MSA = 100 MSA

 Design CBR = 5%

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Pavement Design – Contd…
Recommended Crust Composition
From Plate 2 of IRC: 37-2001

(5% CBR, 100 MSA)

BC = 50 mm

DBM = 150 mm

Base Course (WMM) = 250 mm

Subbase Course (GSB) = 300 mm

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Example on Analytical Approach of Pavement Design (IRC: 37-2001)
Design Traffic = 100 MSA
Design CBR = 5%

Solution:

Assume the crust composition as given below:

 BC = 50 mm, DBM = 125 mm, WMM = 250 mm and GSB = 300 mm
 Compacted Thickness of Subgrade = 500 mm
Assume the material properties as given below.
 Use VG-30 (60/70) grade bitumen for BT layers
 E Value of BT layers at 350C = 1695 Mpa (Page 52 of IRC: 37-2001)
 Estimate E Value of Subgrade
= 10 x CBR …….if CBR ≤ 5%
= 17.6 x (CBR)0.64 …….if CBR > 5% (Refer Page 53 of IRC: 37-2001)

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Example on Analytical Approach of Pavement Design (IRC: 37-2001)
Contd..:

 Therefore, E Value of Subgrade

= 10 x CBR
Esub = 10 x 5 = 50 MPa

Estimate E value of Granular Layers = Egr = Esub x 0.2 x h0.45

h = thickness of granular layers = thickness of WMM and GSB = 250+ 300 = 550 mm

 Therefore, E Value of Granular Layers

= 50 x 0.2 x 5500.45 = 171 MPa

Assume the Poisson's Ratios as below.

For BT layer = µ = 0.50
For Granular layer = µ = 0.40

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Example on Analytical Approach of Pavement Design (IRC: 37-2001)

Summary of Design Inputs

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Calculate allowable Strains

Reliability

  of pavement design as per IRC: 37-2001 is deemed to be 80%

Fatigue Criteria:
…(Refer Annexure 1.1 of IRC: 37-2001)
Where,
Nf = No. Cumulative standard axles to produce 20% cracked surface area = 100 MSA = 100 x 106
εt = Tensile Strain at the bottom of the BT layer = ?
E = Elastic modulus of BT layer = 1695 Mpa

εt = 197 x 10-6

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Calculate allowable Strains

Rutting
  Criteria:
…(Refer Annexure 1.1 of IRC: 37-2001)

Where,
Nf = No. Cumulative standard axles to produce rutting of 20 mm = 100 MSA = 100 x 106
εv = Compressive Strain on the top of the Subgrade = ?

εv = 405 x 10-6

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 Calculate Actual Strains using structural models:
Weight of Standard axle = 80 kN/8.16 Tons
20 KN 20 KN 20 KN 20 KN Wheel load = 20 kN = 20000 N
Tyre Pressure = 5.6 kg/cm2 = 0.549 MPa

5.6 kg/cm2

310 mm
BC = 50 mm
εt DBM = 125 mm
A (175, 0) B (175, 155)
WMM = 250 mm

GSB = 300 mm
εv
C (725, 0) D (725, 155)
Subgrade = 500 mm

Use FPAVE (IITPAVE Software to find the actual strains) 11/05/2020 Flexible Pavement Design 40
Checking the Design

Achieved
  Traffic: (Least of the following)
Fatigue Criteria, = = 60 MSA
Rutting Criteria, = = 494 MSA

The pavement fails when the traffic reaches 60 MSA and hence unsafe –
Increase the crust thickness and repeat the above steps

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 2nd Trial: Calculate Actual Strains using structural models:
Weight of Standard axle = 80 kN/8.16 Tons
20 KN 20 KN 20 KN 20 KN Wheel load = 20 kN = 20000 N
Tyre Pressure = 5.6 kg/cm2 = 0.549 Mpa

5.6 kg/cm2

310 mm
BC = 50 mm
εt DBM = 150 mm
A (200, 0) B (200, 155)
WMM = 250 mm

GSB = 300 mm
εv
C (750, 0) D (750, 155)
Subgrade = 500 mm

Use FPAVE (IITPAVE Software to find the actual strains) 11/05/2020 Flexible Pavement Design 42
Checking the Design

Achieved
  Traffic: (Least of the following)
Fatigue Criteria, = = 105 MSA
Rutting Criteria, = = 804 MSA

The achieved traffic is more than 100 MSA and hence design is safe.

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THANK YOU

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