Design Methods

• Highway Pavements
„ AASHTO
„ The Asphalt Institute
„ Portland Cement Association

• Airfield Pavements
„ FAA
„ The Asphalt Institute
„ Portland Cement Association
„ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Objectives of Pavement Design

To provide a surface that is:
• Strong
„ Surface strength
„ Moisture control

• Smooth
• Safe
„ Friction
„ Drainage

• Economical
„ Initial construction cost
„ Recurring maintenance cost

1
 Pavements are Designed
to Fail !!

Pavement Design Methodologies

• Experience
• Empirical
„ Statistical models from road tests

• Mechanistic-Empirical
„ Calculation of pavement stresses/strains/deformations
„ Empirical pavement performance models

• Mechanistic
„ Calculation of pavement stresses/strains/deformations
„ Mechanics-based pavement performance models

2
 AASHTO Pavement Design Guide
• Empirical design methodology
• Several versions:
„ 1961 (Interim Guide)
„ 1972
„ 1986
‹ Refined material characterization
‹ Version included in Huang (1993)
„ 1993
‹ More on rehabilitation
‹ More consistency between flexible, rigid designs
‹ Current version
„ 2002
‹ Under development
‹ Will be based on mechanistic-empirical approach

AASHO Road Test (late 1950’s)

(AASHO, 1961)

3
One Rainfall Zone...

(AASHO, 1961)

One Temperature Zone...

(AASHO, 1961)

4
One Subgrade...

A-6 / A-7-6 (Clay)

Poor Drainage

(AASHO, 1961)

Limited Set of Materials...

• One asphalt concrete
„ 3/4” surface course
„ 1” binder course

• One Portland cement concrete (3500 psi @ 14 days)

• Four base materials
„ Well-graded crushed limestone (main experiment)
„ Well-graded uncrushed gravel (special studies)
„ Bituminous-treated base (special studies)
„ Cement-treated base (special studies)

• One uniform sand/gravel subbase

5
 1950’s
Construction
Methods...

(AASHO, 1961)

(AASHO, 1961)

1950’s
Vehicle Loads...

6
Limited Traffic Volumes...

Axle Loads (Thousands) 1.1M

1.1MAxles
Axles

22Years
Years

Time (Months)

(AASHO, 1961)

1950’s
Data Analysis...

(AASHO, 1961)

7
 Some Failures...

(Some pavements too!)

(AASHO, 1961)

1993 Version

8
AASHTO Design Guide (1993)

Part I: Pavement Design and Management

Principles
• Introduction and Background
• Design Related to Project Level Pavement
Management
• Economic Evaluation of Alternative Design Strategies
• Reliability

AASHTO Design Guide (1993)

Part II: Pavement Design Procedures for

New Construction or Reconstruction
• Design Requirements
• Highway Pavement Structural Design
• Low-Volume Road Design

9
 AASHTO Design Guide (1993)

Part III: Pavement Design Procedures for

Rehabilitation of Existing Pavements
• Rehabilitation Concepts
• Guides for Field Data Collection
• Rehabilitation Methods Other Than Overlay
• Rehabilitation Methods With Overlays

Design Scenarios
Included in
AASHTO Guide

(AASHTO, 1993)

10
 AASHTO Design Based
on Serviceability Decrease

(AASHTO, 1993)

What is Serviceability?
• Based upon Present
Serviceability Rating
(PSR)
• Subjective rating by
individual/panel
„ Initial/post-construction
„ Various times after
construction

• 0 < PSR < 5

• PSR < ~2.5:
Unacceptable
(AASHO, 1961)

11
Repeatability of PSR Ratings

(Yoder and Witczak, 1974)

Are Experts Even Needed?

(Yoder and Witczak, 1974)

12
Present Serviceability Index (PSI)

• PSR correlated to physical pavement measures via

Present Serviceability Index (PSI):

2
PSI = 5.03 − 1.91log(1 + SV ) − 1.38 RD − 0.01(C + P)1/ 2

SV = slope variance (measure of roughness) Empirical!

RD = average rut depth (inches)
C + P = area of cracking and patching per 1000 ft 2
PSI ≈ PSR

Flexible Pavements

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Design Equation
log10 (W18 ) = Z R So + 9.36 log10 ( SN + 1) − 0.20
Structural Number
 ∆PSI 
log10 
 4.2 − 1.5  + 2.32 log M − 8.07
+ 10 ( R)
1094
0.40 +
( SN + 1)
5.19

W18 = design traffic (18-kip ESALs)

ZR = standard normal deviate
So = combined standard error of traffic and performance prediction
∆PSI = difference between initial and terminal serviceability index
MR = resilient modulus (psi)
SN = structural number

(AASHTO, 1993)

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Design Inputs and Outputs

• Inputs
„ Design life (analysis period)
„ Traffic (W18)
„ Foundation stiffness (MR)
„ Performance criterion (∆PSI)
„ Reliability (ZR, So)

• Outputs
„ Required pavement capacity: Structural Number (SN)

15
Traffic vs. Design Life

Traffic (W18) is defined

in terms of number of
18 kip Equivalent Single
Axle Loads (ESALs) over
the design life of the
pavement.

Also basis for life cycle cost analysis

(AASHTO, 1993)

What’s an ESAL?

δ εt
εc
Which criterion?
(They don’t all give the same result!)

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Design Traffic (18K ESALs)

(AASHTO, 1993)

Design Traffic (18K ESALs)

• DD = 0.5 typically
• D L:

(AASHTO, 1993)

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 Foundation Stiffness: MR
σa

∆σ
MR

σc

∆ε
εa
εc

Adjustment of
Roadbed (Subgrade)
MR for Seasonal
Variations

(AASHTO, 1993)

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 Performance Criterion

∆PSI = po − pt
• PSI = Pavement Serviceability Index, 1 < PSI < 5
• po = Initial Serviceability Index
„ Rigid pavements: 4.5
„ Flexible pavements: 4.2

• pt = Terminal Serviceability Index

(AASHTO, 1993)

Reliability

(AASHTO, 1993)

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ZR and So

So = Standard Deviation
Rigid Pavements: So = 0.30 - 0.40
Flexible Pavements: So = 0.40 - 0.50

All variability is lumped into

a single set of parameters!

(AASHTO, 1993)

Recommended Reliability Levels

(AASHTO, 1993)

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Structural Number SN
n
SN = a1 D1 + ∑ ai Di mi
i=2

SN = structural number = f (structural

capacity)
ai = ith layer structural coefficient
Di = ith layer thickness (inches)
mi = ith layer drainage coefficient
n = number of layers (3, typically)

What Are Layer Coefficients?

• Are they fundamental engineering properties of
pavement materials?
• Can they be measured in the laboratory?
• Can they be defined easily for new materials?--e.g.,
„ Modified HMA
„ Geosynthetic reinforced unbound materials

No! NO! NO!

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 a1: HMA

(AASHTO, 1993)

a2: Granular Base a2 ≅ 0.249 ( log10 Ebase ) − 0.977

Ebase in psi

(AASHTO, 1993)

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a3: Granular Subbase

a3 = 0.227(log10 Esubbase ) − 0.839

Esubbase in psi

(AASHTO, 1993)

Quality of Drainage

(AASHTO, 1993)

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 Drainage Coefficient mi
mi increases/decreases the effective value for ai

Captures effect of environment on material properties

(AASHTO, 1993)

No Unique Solution!

(AASHTO, 1993)

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Design Example

Next Slide
(AASHTO, 1993)

25
Traffic vs. Analysis Period

(AASHTO, 1993)

(AASHTO, 1993)

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 Effect of Frost
on Performance

PSI = Pavement
Servicability
Index

1 < PSI < 5

“Failure”: PSI < 2+

(AASHTO, 1993)

Frost Heave Rate φ

φ = f (-0.02mm)

(AASHTO, 1993)

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 Maximum
Serviceability
Loss

∆PSImax =
f (frost depth,
drainage)

(AASHTO, 1993)

Effect of
Swelling on
Performance

PSI = Pavement
Servicability
Index

1 < PSI < 5

“Failure”: PSI < 2+

(AASHTO, 1993)

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 Swell Rate Constant θ

θ = f (moisture supply,
soil fabric)

(AASHTO, 1993)

Maximum Potential
Heave VR

VR = f (PI, compaction, thickness)

(AASHTO, 1993)

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