PAVEMENT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

CE 242-8 Transportation
Engineering II
By Asst Prof Kamran Mushtaq

1
 References
Principles of Transportation Engineering
by Partha Chakroborty & Animesh Das
(1st Edn) Chapter 11-Pavement Analysis
and Chapter 12-Pavement Design
(Limited)
AASHTO Guide & Internet

2
 Guidance
Take down notes in class to add to the
slides. Only slides will not suffice
Must do the class exercises with through
understanding and clarify your doubts.
Example Sheet should be done in your
own time.
No questions will be asked from slides
marked
3
STRESS AND STRAIN IN
PAVEMENTS
 Stress
Force per unit area

s = Load P
=
Area A
Units: MPa, psi, ksi
Types: bearing, shearing, etc
 Strain
Ratio of deformation caused by load to
the original length of material

e =
Change in Length DL
=
Original Length
L
Units: Dimensionless
 Stiffness
Stiffness
stress/strain


Stress, 
=
 E
1

Strain, 
 Typical E Values
Material (Effect of Temp) E (psi)
Asphalt concrete (32F) 2,000,000
Asphalt concrete (70F) 500,000
Asphalt concrete (120F) 20,000

Material E (psi)
PCC 3,000,000 - 8,000,000
Granular base 14,000 – 50,000
Fine-grained soil 3,000 – 10,000
Poisson’s Ratio
Typical Poisson’s Ratios (µ)
Material Range Typical
PCC 0.10 - 0.20 0.15
HMA 0.15 - 0.45 0.35
Granular 0.30 - 0.40 0.35
Base / Subbase
Subgrade Soil 0.30 - 0.50 0.40
INTRODUCTION TO
PAVEMENTS
 Pavement
The pavement is the structure which
separates the tyres of vehicles from the
underlying foundation material.
Generally soil but it may be structural
concrete or a steel bridge deck.
 Types of Pavements

Flexible Rigid
Pavements Pavements

Essential difference is the

way load is distributed
 Comparison
Flexible Rigid
Structural capacity by Most structural capacity
load distribution by slab itself, major factor
characteristics of the in design is structural
layered system, all layers strength.
carry part of load.

AC PCC Slab

Base
Subgrade
Subgrade
Flexible Rigid
Load intensity reduces Relatively minor
through depth and it is contribution to load
distributed over sub carrying capacity by sub
grade. base.
Deep deflection basin Shallow deflection basin
Low modulus of elasticity. High modulus of
elasticity.
More role of sub grade Minor variation in Sub
strength grade strength, little
influence.
No structure behaves perfectly Rigid or Flexible
 Do Not Forget
Basic purpose was to distinguish
between AC and PCC pavements.
Generally AC (asphalt concrete)
pavements are referred as flexible and
PCC or RCC as rigid.
 Thin PCC over granular behaves as
flexible.
 Full depth AC pavement & chip seal over
PCC behaves as rigid
 Flexible Pavements
Flexible Pavements maintain intimate contact
with and distributes loads to the sub grade
and depends on aggregate interlock, particle
friction, and cohesion for stability.
 Distresses in Flexible
Pavements

Rutting Fatigue Cracking Bleeding

Ravelling Shoving Longitudnal Cracking

 Responses Used in
Evaluating Load Effects
Surface deflection
Horizontal tensile strains at
bottom of AC layer
Vertical compressive strain
on top of intermediate layer
(base/ subbase)
Vertical compressive strain
on top of the subgrade
 Rigid Pavements
Rigid Pavements are wearing surfaces
constructed of Portland Cement
Concrete on sub grade or granular sub
base.
Contains sufficient beam strength to
bridge over localized sub-grade failures
and areas of inadequate support.
 Sub base under rigid
pavements is required for
Control of pumping.
Control of frost action.
Drainage.
Control of shrinkage and swell of sub
grade.
Expeditious construction.
Steel in Concrete Pavements
Used for temperature reinforcement
purposes, dowel or tie bar.
Mesh does not prevent cracking but
slows down propagation.
Dowel bars transfer load.
Tie bars not intended for load transfer.
Stresses in Rigid Pavements

Warping stresses
 Locations: edge; interior; corner
Wheel load related stresses
 Location: edge; interior; corner
Shrinkage/expansion stresses
Other stresses
Warping Stress - Day Time (Slab
surface temp>bottom temp)

Warping Stress - Night Time (Slab

bottom temp>surface temp)
 Types of Rigid Pavements
Plain Pavements, closely spaced joints
(about 15 ft) are provided and load
transfer obtained by aggregate interlock
between the cracked faces of the joint.
Plain-Doweled Pavements, relatively
close joint spacing not more than 20 ft,
transfer through steel dowel bars.
 Reinforced Concrete Pavements
contain reinforcing steel mats as well as
dowel bars and are built with joints
spaced up to 40 ft.
Continuously Reinforced Concrete
Pavements without contraction joints.
These pavements tend to develop
minute cracks at close intervals and
provide load transfer by aggregate
interlock at the crack faces held
together by steel reinforcement.
Concrete Pavements Joints
BASIC CONCEPT
Wheel Load, Configuration
and Tyre Pressure
Gross weight transferred to pavement
through axles and tyres.
Different configurations
 Single, dual, tandem
The concept of ESWL is used to convert
‘equivalent effect’ of ‘any axle
configuration wheel’ to ‘single wheel
configuration’.
Axle loads are in use rather than wheel
loads
Effect may be stress, strain or surface
deflection.
Tyre pressure determine the load
contact area used in pavement design.

a p s
g c
in
th in k
e
t o n th
Pu
 13.6
Tons Failure = 10,000
Repetitions
11.3 Tons
Failure = 100,000
Repetitions
4.5 Tons
Failure = 1,000,000 Repetitions

2.3 Tons
Failure = 10,000,000
4.5 Repetitions
13.6 Tons Tons
Failure = Repetitions ?
11.3 Tons 2.3 Tons
 RELATIVE DAMAGE CONCEPT
Equivalent
18000 - Ibs Damage per
Standard ESAL
(8.2 tons) Pass = 1
Axle Load

• Axle loads bigger than 8.2 tons cause damage

greater than one per pass
• Axle loads smaller than 8.2 tons cause damage less
than one per pass
• Load Equivalency Factor (L.E.F) = (? Tons/8.2
tons)4
 Consider two single axles A and B where:
A-Axle = 16.4 tons
 Damage caused per pass by A -Axle = (16.4/8.2)4 = 16
 This means that A-Axle causes same amount of damage
per pass as caused by 16 passes of standard 8.2 tons axle
i.e,

=
16.4 Tons 8.2 Tons
Axle Axle
 Consider two single axles A and B where:
B-Axle = 4.1 tons
 Damage caused per pass by B-Axle = (4.1/8.2)4 = 0.0625
 This means that B-Axle causes only 0.0625 times damage per
pass as caused by 1 pass of standard 8.2 tons axle.
 In other works, 16 passes (1/0.625) of B-Axle cause same
amount of damage as caused by 1 pass of standard 8.2 tons
axle i.e.,

=
4.1 Tons Axle 8.2 Tons Axle
AXLE LOAD & RELATIVE DAMAGE

75.2
80

63.4
70
DAMAGE PER PASS

53.1
60

44.1
50

36.3
29.5
40

23.8
18.9
30

14.9
20 11.5
8.7
6.5
4.7
3.3

10
2.3
1.1
1.0

0
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
SINGLE AXLE LOAD (Tons)
Dense-graded Gap-graded Open-graded

PAVEMENT DESIGN
 Pavement Purpose
Smoothness
Load support
Drainage
 Pavement Design
Pavement Thickness Design is the determination of
required thickness of various pavement layers to protect a
given soil condition for a given wheel load.
Given Wheel Load

150 Psi
Asphalt Concrete Thickness?
Base Course Thickness?
Subbase Course Thickness? 3 Psi

Given In Situ Soil Conditions

Determining thickness values & laying
configuration for the chosen pavement
materials.
Three aspects
 Structural Design. Adequacy of the
pavement to sustain traffic load and its
repetitions, ensuring no sudden failure.
 Functional Design. Parameters are either
riding quality or safety related , to include
roughness, rolling resistance, skid
resistance, colour, reflectivity, tyre-
pavement interaction, noise etc.
 Drainage Design. Entry of water is
restricted and quick drain out is ensured
before causing any distress/ failure.
 ASPECTS OF DESIGN
DRAINAGE DRAINAGE DRAINAGE DRAINAGE DRAINAGE

Functional Structural

Can sustain
Safety Riding Quality
Traffic Load
 Design Parameters
Environmental Characteristics

Load
Traffic
Magnitude
Characteristics
Volume
Asphalt Concrete
Base
Material
Properties Subase
Roadbed Soil (Subgrade)
 Material Properties

Material Properties
Already discussed
Materials are characterized
Requirement is of standardization
Input parameters
 Obtained experimentally
 Estimated from formule
 Traffic Characteristics

Traffic Characteristics- Axle Load

AASHTO Universal Equation
Fourth Power Damage Formula
N1/N2 = (W2/W1)4
Legal axle loads/ limits
 10.2 tonnes and 14.97 tonnes for single and Tandem axles
Standard Axle Load
 18000 lbs
 18 kips

 8.2 / 8.16 tonnes

 Traffic Characteristics

Traffic Characteristics- Traffic Volume

(1 + r) n – 1
GF = ----------------
Daily Traffic Counts
r
Traffic Growth Factor
  Estimating future traffic
 n= Performance period
 r= Anticipated growth rate per year

Axle Load Survey for Axle Load

Distribution Data
 Traffic Characteristics

‘Commercial Vehicles Repetitions’ are

converted to ‘Standard Axle Load
Repetitions ‘
Converted to VDF (Vehicle Damage
Factor) or Truck Factor (TF) is
determined which is in fact “Average
Daily ESALs /Truck.
Design ESALs are worked out.
 Traffic Characteristics

Typical LEFs
6
E S A L s p e r V e h ic le

5.11
5

1.85
2
1.35
1
0.0007 0.10
0
Car Delivery Truck Loaded 18-Wheeler Loaded 40' Bus Loaded 60'
Articulated Bus

Notice that cars are insignificant and thus usually ignored

in pavement design.
 Traffic Characteristics

LEFs by AASHTO
Depends upon
 SN
 Pt

 Axle type
 Terrain

 Road type
 Traffic Characteristics

Traffic Characteristics- Different

Factors for Design ESALs
Directional Distribution Factor
Generally 50/50
Lane Distribution Factor
 Both directions counts are to be converted to one lane counts
Lateral Distribution of Wheel Path in a lane
 Line of traverse of vehicle is more critical
Wheel Configuration
 Dual wheels
 Tandem Wheels

 Wheels on opposite sides of axle

Assignment 5 Design ESALs

 Environmental Characteristics

Environmental Characteristics
Temperature
Frost & Thaw
Action
Sub grade
moisture –
affects CBR or
MR

Assignment
 Design Life
Design Life
Performance Period
Staged Construction
Overlays and Rehablitation
 FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE CURVE
Perfect Rehabilitation
Unacceptable
Ride Quality
limit

Traffic/
Age
STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE CURVE
Rehabilitation Structural
Failure
Structural
Capacity

Perfect Traffic/ Age

PAVEMENT THICKNESS DESIGN
APPROACHES

MECHANISTIC-
EMPIRICAL
EMPIRICAL
PROCEDURE
PROCEDURE
 EMPIRICAL PROCEDURES
• These procedures are derived from experience (observed field
performance) of in-service pavements and or “Test Sections”
• These procedures define the interaction

Pavement A given set of

performance, paving materials
between traffic loads & for and soils,
pavement geographic
location and
thickness
climatic conditions
• These procedures are only accurate for the exact conditions for
which they were developed and may be invalid outside the range
of variables used in their development.
• EXAMPLE
• AASHTO Procedure (USA)
• Road Note Procedure (UK)
 MECHANISTIC-EMPIRICAL PROCEDURES
o These procedures, as the name implies, have two parts:
o A mechanistic part in which a structural model (theory)
is used to calculate stresses, strains and deflections
induced by traffic and environmental loading.
o An empirical part in which distress models are used to
predict the future performance of the pavement structure.

o The distress models are typically developed from the

laboratory data and calibrated with the field data.

o EXAMPLES
o Asphalt Institute Procedure (USA)
o SHRP Procedure (USA)
AASHTO & NCAT
 Design considerations for the
AASHTO Flexible Pavement Design
The following factors are considered in the pavement
thickness design.
Pavement performance
Traffic
Roadbed soils (subgrade material)
Materials of construction
Environment
Drainage
Reliability
Design Chart (Figure 4 Inputs)
Reliability (R%)
Standard Deviation (So)
W 18
MR
ΔPSI
(SN is determined and layer thicknesses are calculated)
 Pavement performance
Serviceability Performance: Measured by PSI  Present Serviceability
Index with scale 0 to 5.
ΔPSI = Initial PSI (pi) - PSI (pt)

5 “Just constructed”
4.2 Initial PSI (pi)

PSI Terminal PSI (pt)

 2.5 to 3.0 for major
highways
 2.0 for lower class
0 “Road closed”
highways
 1.5 for very special cases
 Traffic
 In the AASHTO flexible pavement design, traffic is considered in
terms of ESAL for the terminal PSI
 You must assume the structural number of the pavement. So, you
must check if the final SN3 is similar to the assumed SN. Higher SN
means stronger pavement, thus the impact of traffic on pavement
deteriorations is less.
 Roadbed soils (Subgrade material)

CBR (California Bearing Ratio), R-value (Resistance), and Mr (Resilient

modulus) are used to describe the property of the subgrade material.
During the structural design, only Mr values are used. The following
conversion formulas are used if either CBR or R-values are given.

Mr (lb/in2) = 1500 x CBR for fine-grain soils with soaked CBR of 10 or

less.
Mr (lb/in2) = 1000 + 555 x (R-value) for R <= 20
 Materials of construction (AC surface), a1

FIGURE 1

0.44

Structural number of the

AC surface, a1

= Resilient modulus, Mr
 Materials of construction (Base course), a2
FIGURE 2

Use CBR, R-value, or Mr to find

a2 values
Structural number of the
base course, a2
 Materials of construction (Subbase), a3
Charts are available to convert the properties of pavement construction
materials to structural numbers: a3, a2, and a1

FIGURE 3

Use CBR, R-value, or Mr to find

a3 values
Structural number of the
subbase, a3
 Step 1 Environment
ASGN - 5
Temperature and rainfall affect
the level of strength of the
subgrade, reflected on the value
of resilient modulus. AASHTO
developed a chart that helps you
to estimate the effective roadbed
soil resilient modulus using the
serviceability criteria (in terms of
“relative damage, uf.”)
Determine the average uf.
value and obtain Mr from the
chart or the equation of uf. .
 The bar on the right is
used twice: Once to read uf
value for each month’s
Step 2 sample Mr, then to read
annual average Mr using
Step 3
the average uf value.
 Drainage

The effect of drainage on the performance of flexible

pavements is considered with respect to the effect water has
on the strength of the base material and roadbed soil.
This effect is expressed by the drainage coefficient, mi.
This value is dependent on the drainage quality and the
percent of time pavement structure is exposed to moisture
levels approaching saturation.
 Definition of drainage quality and finding
recommended mi values
If “Fair” and
30% exposure,
then mi is 0.80. Select middle value for
Exam purpose
m2 for Base
Step 1 m3for Sub Base
TABLE -5
Time required to
drain the
base/subbase layer Step 2
to 50% saturation.
 Reliability
The reliability factor (FR) is computed using:
The Reliability design level (R%) determine assurance levels that
the pavement section designed will survive for its design period (it is
a z-score from the standard normal distribution
the standard deviation (So)

One-sided Z-score is used

here.

Survive
Fail
TABLE 1 TABLE 2
Functional Reliability%
Classification Urban Rural Value of Standard Normal
Deviate
Freeways 85-99.9 80-99.9
Arterials 80-99 75-95 Reliability% ZR
Collectors 80-95 75-95 50 -0.000
Locals 50-80 50-80 60 -0.253
TABLE 3 70 -0.524
SD ( So ) For Flexible Pavements 80 -0.841
Variation in pavement performance 0.35 85 -1.037
prediction without traffic error 90 -1.282
95 -1.645
Variation in pavement performance 0.45
prediction in traffic e prediction 99 -2.327
99.5 -3.090
 Structural design
FIGURE 4

log10 W18  Z R S o  9.36 log10 SN  1  0.20

log10 PSI /(4.2  1.5)


0.40  1094 /(SN  1)5.19 
 2.32 log10 M r  8.07
 Once SN value is set, thickness design begins…
SN  a1 D1  a2 D2 m2  a3 D3m3
SN1  a1 D1
Proceed in SN 2  a1D1  a2 D2 m2
this direction
SN3  a1D1  a2 D2 m2  a3 D3m3

TABLE -4
 Example
Given:
 Rural Arterial
 ESAL = 2 x 106
 Total variation in pavement performance prediction in traffic
estimation,
 One week for water to be drained, Saturation level moisture
exposure = 30% of the time
PSIi= 4.5 PSIt= 2.5
 AC’s Mr at 68Fo = 450,000 lb/in2
 CBR of base course =100
 CBR of subbase =22
 CBR of subgrade = 6
THANKS

 CBR of base course =100, Mr = 31,000
lb/in2
 CBR of subbase =22, Mr = 13,500 lb/in
 CBR of subgrade = 6, Mr = 1500CBR=
6*1500 = 9000 lb/in2
Parameter values:
 Reliability level (R ) = 99%
from Tab. 20.16
 Standard Deviation (So) =
0.49, Table 20.16, p.973
 Initial serviceability, pi = 4.5
2
 Terminal serviceability, pt =
2.5
 Drainage mi values = 0.8 for
“Fair” category in Tab. 20.14
and “Greater than 25%”
category in Tab. 20.15