RIGID PAVEMENT THICKNESS DESIGN BY SPREADSHEET

George Vorobieff,
Infrastructure Engineer,
Cement and Concrete Association of Australia

SUMMARY

The design of rigid pavement in Australia has traditionally followed, albeit with several
modifications, the Portland Cement Association method. This method is based on limiting
the concrete flexural stress under load and pavement distress caused by the erosion of the
sub-base and/or subgrade at the joints. The design method is based on a iterative system
which makes the design process tedious if the initial base thickness chosen in the calculations
is not close to the actual required thickness.

In 1988 the State Road Authority pavement engineers adopted, with the assistance of
ARRB Transport Research, the PCA design methodology for the AUSTROADS Pavement
Design Guide. In the Guide modifications to the design tables in the PCA method were
made to allow for Australian commercial vehicle axle configurations.

The lengthy design calculation process has encouraged the creation of specific in-house
spreadsheets to handle the numerical computations of the process. Thi s paper suggests a
spreadsheet approach to the calculation of the total fatigue and erosion distress for each
commercial vehicle axle group. The detailed algorithms in thi s paper also provide the
pavement designer with greater efficiencies in the design procedure.

The NSW RTA's Pavement Branch has also developed a sophisticated spreadsheet utili sing
the macro functions in Lotus 123. Thi s program incorporates the stress ratio and erosion
factor tables in the AUSTROADS Guide. The program designers have incorporated
sufficient flexibility to the spreadsheet to allow standard or site specific CULWAY traffic
distribution data. The program 's input and output parameters are detailed in this paper.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The author of this paper wishes to thank the staff at the
NSW RTA Pavements Branch and the program designer, Wieslaw Gorecki, for their support
in the preparation of this paper.

PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE , PART 3 169

 George Vorobieff is the infrastructure engineer for the Cement and
Concrete Association of Australia and has had wide private and
government experience in civil and structural engineering. He has
a Civil Engineering degree with honours from the University of
NSW, and masters of Engineering Science and Business
Administration.

170 PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE, PART 3

 INTRODUCTION

1. The design of rigid road pavements, commonly referred to as concrete roads, in

Australia has traditionally followed, albeit with several modifications, the Portland
Cement Association (PCA) method. This method is based on providing sufficient
concrete flexural strength and pavement thickness to prevent erosion of the sub-ba se
resulting in a loss of shear-transfer at transverse joints. Also, the design method is based
on a iterative system that makes the design process tedious if the initial or trial base
thickness chosen is not close to the actual required thickness. In determining the design
thickness, several large tables listing various factors and nomographs provided a simple
thickness design procedure at a time when desktop computers were not readily
availability.

2. Today finite element programs, such as STRAND6, provide design engineers with
the ability to carry out sophisticated stress and strain analysis of flexible and rigid
pavements to optimise pavement material properties and layer thicknesses.

3. Access to these finite element programs has generally been limited due to their
cost. The next best approach to computerising the rigid pavement thickness design
calculation is to use a spreadsheet program. Currently there are three major spreadsheet
programs in Australia, namely Excel, Lotus 123 and Quattro, and all these programs
provide sufficient tools to make the spreadsheet format user-friendly.

4. This paper details the application of the base thickness determination using the
methodology of Chapter 9 of the Austroad Pavement Design Guide (1992) using
spreadsheet techniques. The first section of this paper introduces design algorithms to
ensure the spreadsheet operates efficiently.

AXLE LOADS ON RIGID PAVEMENTS

5. Rigid pavements under vehicle loading behave as discrete slabs whereas the wheel
load effects on flexible pavements is localised at the wheel. The positioning of axle
groups on the base slab in jointed pavements is critical to the resultant flexural stress in
the slab. The thickness design calculations reflect the number of axles in a group and the
magnitude of the axle load assuming equal load distribution to all tyres.

6. There are several axle groups in Australia and Figure I shows the four main types
(note the number of wheels per group identified in the figure), namely:

0 single axle with single tyres (SS) and the load per wheel is axle group load -;-2,
0 single axle with dual tyres (SD) and the load per wheel is axle group load-;- 4,
0 tandem axle with dual tyres (TAD) and the load per wheel is axle group load -;- 8,
and
0 triaxle with dual tyres (TRD) and the load per wheel is axle group load-;- 12.

PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE , PART 3 171

 ss SD TAD TRD
2 4 8 12

Figure I Plan of the four most common commercial vehicle axle groups in
Australia.

7. Table 1.1 (Appendix I) ofthe Austroads Guide lists representative distributions of

axle load groups for urban and rural traffic. This data has been derived from CULWAY
data taken in 1982 and incorporates the dynamic component of the axle loading from the
four axle groups.

8. This data in Table I. I can be directly applied to the spreadsheet analysis using one
sheet for each axle group. The advantage of a spreadsheet design tool is that axle load
distribution can be easily changed to accommodate site specific data.

DISTRESS MODES OF TIDCKNESS ANALYSIS

9. It has been well documented that the most common failure mechanisms of rigid
pavements is due to concrete cracking from flexural fatigue or erosion of the transverse
joint leading to a ' step ' across the joint. At low vehicle volumes the design calculations
result in a "thin" pavement and a fatigue distress mechanism is likely to occur first . In
high trafficked sites a "thick" pavement is used and erosion of the transverse joint will
occur before cracking of the slab (see Figure 2). This general behaviour of rigid
pavement is important for overall checking of the computations from the proposed
spreadsheet results.

10. Two areas ofthe current design process require the designer to look up a table for
fatigue and erosion factors, and a nomograph to determine the allowable axle repetitions.
Packard and Tayabji ( 1985) published at the 1985 Purdue Conference the algorithm for
the nomograph included in the PCA design method, that is Figure 9.4 from the
Austroads Guide.

172 PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE, PART 3

 Fatigue related distress Erosion related distress

fil
1.00E+6 3.00E+6 1.00E+7 3.00E+7 1.00E+8
Commercial Vehicle Axle Groups

Figure 2 Typical rigid pavement thickness design curve for a specific effective
CBR and concrete flexural strength demonstrating that erosion of the transverse
joints is generaUy the dominant distress mechanism for high-volume vehicle traffic.

11. The design algorithms are detailed in metric form as:

(a) Fatigue distress mode

Allowable load repetitions (Nr) for a given axle load is:

0 9719
log(N) = [ · -Sr] whenS, > 0.55 (1)
f 0.0828

3.268
N _ 4.258
when 0.45 ~ S, ~ 0.55 (2)
r- [ Sr - 0.4325 ]

where s, = ~ [P.LsF]0.94
f' cf 4.45Fl
Se =equivalent stress (MPa)
f cr = design flexural fatigue strength (MPa)
P = axle load (kN)
L sF = load safety factor
F1 = load adjustment due to axle group
= 9 for single axle with single wheel
= 18 for single axle with dual wheel
= 36 for tandem axle with dual wheel
= 54 for triaxle with dual wheel

Nr is infinite or commonly referred to as unlimited when S, is less than 0.45.

PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE , PART 3 173

(b) Erosion distress mode
Allowable load repetitions (Ne) for a given axle load is:

PLsF 10 '
2 F ]0.103
log(F2Nc) = 14.52-6.77 ( - - ) - - -9.0 (3)
[
4.45F1 41.35

where P, LsF and F 1 are similar to previous definitions.

F2 = adjustment for slab edge effects
= 0.06 for base with no shoulder
= 0.94 for base with shoulder
F3 = erosion factor

12. In the above equations, the equivalent stress and erosion factors are obtained from
Tables 9.2 and 9.3 of the Austroads Pavement Design Guide. The load safety factors
(LsF) are listed in Section 9.3.6 ofthe Guide and some SRAs give more specific detail in
their design guides.

13. The allowable axle load repetitions using the algorithm and the design nomograph
in the Austroads Guide shows a variation of up to 6%. With the potential for human
error in using the nomograph and the ability to read off the values with a high degree of
accuracy, this variation is considered acceptable by the author.

TIDCKNESS DESIGN PROCESS

GENERAL

14. The Austroads thickness design procedure is an iterative procedure with a trial
base thickness initially selected followed by a fatigue and erosion distress analysis. A
detailed step by step procedure is listed in Table I with steps 13 and 14 suitable for
spreadsheet analysis.

15. The suggested overall layout of the spreadsheet is (also see Figure 3):

o The first sheet should be used for project description, traffic estimate over the life
of the pavement and allowable flexural strength.
o A separate sheet should be used for each of one four axle load groups.
o Several columns are set up on each sheet to calculate the ratio of allowable load
repetitions to estimated axle load repetition for each axle load magnitude in the
traffic data distribution.

174 PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE, PART 3

 TAB LE l
RIGID PAVEMENT DESIGN STEPS BASED ON AUSTROADS MANUAL.
[Note: ( I) The design life should reflect the importance of the pavement to the region; (2) The 28
8
day mean compressive strength is sometimes used, and (3) An estimated CV AG of 1.5 x 10 is
commonly used for a 40 year life for a major road.]

Step Activity Options Reference to

Figure/Table/Section
of AUSTROADS
Manual

I Establish subgrade
1
2 Design traffic life Generally 40 years
3 Load safety factor (LSF) 1.0, I . I or 1.2 Secti on 9.3 .6
4 Design traffic from .... CULWAYor AUSTROADS Table I-I
Manual
5 Characteristic concrete strength f'.
6 Calculate flexural strength (f' .r) 0.75 .V f' , Section 6.5.3
2

7 Select rigid pavement type Jointed dowelled/undowelled

or CRC
8 Assess pavement shoulder Shoulder/no shoulder
requirements
3
9 Assess minimum subbase CBR % & CVAG Figure 9.1
requirements
10 Determine effective subgrade Subbase type & CBR% Figure 9.2
strength CBR%(Eff.)
II Select trial base thickness (T) Use Figs 9.7 to 9. 10 .
12 Follow these steps if using CULWA Y data or representative traffic data
13 For each axle type select (repeat for each type, SS, SD, TAD & TRD)
Ua - design load/tyre =
(Axle group load/tyres) x LSF
l3b - equivalent stress f,, T, CBR%(Eff.) & Axle Type Table 9.3
13c - stress ratio factor f,. = (f., I f., & f' .
f' .)
!3d - erosion factor T, CBR%(Eff), Axle Type, Table 9.3
fsr
13e - allowable load repetitions Load per wheel & stress ratio Figure 9.4
based on fatigue analysis factor
13f - fatigue damage percentage
Frd = Expected/Allowable
repetitions
13g - allowable load repetitions Load per wheel & erosion Figures 9.5 or 9.6
based on erosion anal ysis factor
13h - erosion damage percentage
Fed= Expected/Al lowable
repetitions
14 Add separately the fatigue and
erosion damage percentages for
each axle group
15 Adjust slab thickness based on variation of the calculated percentage to I 00% limit.

PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE , PART 3 175

 ISheet E - TRD Ax le Group I
!s heet D- TAD Ax le Group!

I Sheet C - SD Ax le Group I
I Sheet 8 - SS Ax le Group I
Sheet A -Traffic Estimate & Totals I

-
-

r--
r--

Figure 3 The suggested layout of the spreadsheet.

16. The algorithms described in this paper are suitable for the determination of values
used in the design process. Note that the spreadsheet layout outline is a suggested
starting point and proficient spreadsheet users may find other schemes.

TRAFFIC ESTIMATE

17. The determination of the cumulative commercial vehicle axle groups (CVAG) over
the life of the pavement given AADT data and an estimate of commercial vehicle content
(Cv) is:

CVAG = GF AADT Cv L/100 (4)

where GF = Growth factor (refer to Table 7.2 of the Austroads Guide),

AADT = Annual average daily traffic,
Cv = percentage of commercial vehicles, and
L = ratio of specific lane traffic to total traffic in both directions.

18. CVAG may be determined using known daily commercial vehicle axle groups (Cd)
and adjusted for the life of the pavement, that is:

CVAG = Cd 365 GF (5)

19. Typically, CVAG varies from 1 x 10 6 to 1 x I 0 8 for highways, and is up to 1 x 106

for local and arterial roads based on a pavement life of 40 years.

176 PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE , PART 3

DISTRESS CALCULATIONS FOR ONE AXLE GROUP

20. 1bis section describes a suggested approach for the calculation and layout of the
cumulative fatigue and erosion distress for one axle group using a spreadsheet.

21. Eight columns are necessary for the determination of damage per axle load as
shown in Table I for tandem axles. The equations used for each column are listed below.

Tandem Axles and dual wheels (TAD)

Initial data for sample calculations:

Plain concrete pavement with shoulders and undowelled transverse joints
T (trial thickness) = 200 mm
CBR%(Eff.) = 40%
f'cf = 4.25 MPa
LSF = 1.1
Commercial vehicle axle groups is 9.6 x 107

Step 13b Table 9.3 (Column 3)- Equivalent stress f•• = 1.03
Step J3c Stress ratio factor f., = (fes I f' er) = 1.03/4.25 = 0.24
Step 13d Table 9.3 (Column 7) - Erosion factor = 2.56

Column I Axle load group range for tandem axles with dual wheels (TAD) from Table 1-1
(Urban) of the AUSTROADS Manual . Note that it is better to start from the
highest axle load as the lower axle loads generally result in very high or unlimited
allowable axle load repetitions .

Column 2 Axle load distribution from Table I-1 above. Note that the values in this column
should add up to 100 for each axle load group. However, where from experience the
number of allowable repetitions is unlimited for axle group loads less than 80 kN the
calculations are not completed for expedience.

Axle load [Col. I]]

Column 3 The Load/tyre = Load safety factor = 1.1 x 250/8 = 34.4 kN
[ Number oftyres

Note : The load/tyre for:

Single axles with dual wheels = Axle Load x Load Safety Factor+ 4,
Tandem axles with dual wheels = Axle Load x Load Safety Factor + 8, and
Triaxles with dual wheels = Axle Load x Load Safety Factor+ 12,

Column 4 Expected repetitions = Predicted CV AG x Group Proportion [Table I-1] x

Distribution [Col.2]
= 9.6 X ]0 7 X 0.23 X 0.02/100 = 4416

Note: For the urban representative distribution, the proportions are:

Single axles with single wheels = 0.40
Single axles with dual wheels = 0.31 ,
Tandem axles with dual wheels = 0.23 , and
Triaxles with dual wheels = 0.06 .

I
PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE, PART 3 177
Column 5 Allowable load repetitions (Fatigue) is determined from Figure 9.4 of the
AUSTROADS Guide using 34.4 kN for the load per wheel and 0.24 for the stress
ratio factor [Step 13e]. Alternatively, the algorithms described in this paper may be
used.

Column 6 Fatigue(%) [Step JJJ] = [ Expected Repetitions [Col.4]] x 100 %

Allowable Repetitions [Col.5]

When using the algorithm for this axle loadS,= 0.40 and the allowable load
repetitions is unlimited. Therefore, fatigue = 0%

Column 7 Allowable repetitions (Erosion) is determined from Figure 9.6 (Note: This chart is
used for pavements with shoulders) of the AUSTROADS Guide using 34.4 kN for
the load per wheel and 2.56 for the erosion factor [Step 13g]. Alternatively, the
algorithms described in this paper may be used .

Column 8 Erosion (%)[Step 13h] = [ Expected Repetitions [Col.4]] x 100% =

Allowable Repetitions [Col. 7]
4416/311777 X 100 = 1.4%

The calculations for each axle load for the tandem axle group are summarised in Table ll .

22. The first sheet of the spreadsheet can then be used to determine the total fatigue
and erosion distress for each axle group to verifY that the total of each distress
mechanism is less than 100%.

USE OF SPREADSHEET MACROS

23. It has been established over many years that spreadsheet macros provide efficient
and productive outputs for spreadsheet users where a reasonably well defined numeric
procedure is required to meet the design output.

24. Whilst this paper will not cover suggested approaches, it will highlight the
development of one available spreadsheet system developed by the Pavements Br anch of
the Roads & Traffic Authority ofNSW.

RIGID 5.0

25. A new software package is now available for the base thickness design of rigid
pavements, called Rigid 5.0. This program is specially designed to run with Lotus 123 -
Release 4 (PC Windows based) and uses Lotus Macros to take the designer through
similar steps to the Austroads Guide. The output of the program is the cumulative
fatigue and erosion distress represented as a percentage of allowable axle load
repetitions.

178 PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE, PART 3

 TABLE II
THE CALCULATIO NS TO DETERMINE AN ESTIMATE OF THE
ACCUMULATED FATIGUE AND EROSION DAMAGE OF TANDEM AXLES
WITH DUAL WHEELS.

Farii!;Ue and Erosion Analysis

Axle Load Distribution Load/tyre Expected Allowable Fatigue Allowable Damage
GToup
(kl~ (%) (k..l\f) Repetition Repetition (%) Rep etition (%)
[Column I] I [Column 2] [Column 3] [Column 4] [Column 5] I [C olumn 6] [Column 7] [Column 8]

250 0.02 34.4 44 16 Unlimited 0. 1 311 ,777 1.4

240 0.04 33 .0 8832 Unlimited 0.0 409,777 2.2
230 0.08 31.6 17664 Unlimited 0.0 550,761 3.2
220 0 .12 30.3 26496 Unlimited 0 760,980 3.5
210 0.23 28 .9 50784 Unlimited 0 1,089,017 4.7
200 0.35 27 .5 77280 Unlimited 0 1,632,460 4.7
190 0.64 26 . 1 14 131 2 Unlimited 0 2,610,237 5.4
180 1.!0 24 .8 242880 Unlimited 0 4,597,857 5.3
170 1.91 23.4 421728 Unlimited 0 9,537,915 4.4
160 3.25 22.0 717600 Unlimited j 0 27,954, 16 1 2.6
150 4.73 20 .6 1044384 Unlimited I 0 Unlimited 0
140 5.33 19.3 1176864 Unlimited 0 Unlimited 0
130 5 07 17.9 1119456 Unlimited I 0 Unlimited 0
120 4.65 16.5 1026720 Unl imited I 0 Unlimited 0
110
100
4.24
4. 19
15. 1 936192 Unlimited I 0 Unlimited 0
13.8 925152 Unlimited 0 Unlimited 0
90 4.20 12.4 927360 Unlimited I 0 Unlimited 0
80 4.87 11.0 10752 96 Unlimited I 0 Unl imited 0

Total 0.0 34 .8

26. The program has the same pavement configurations to those noted in the
Austroads Manual, that is, bases with or without shoulders, plain concrete or CRC, and
transverse joints with or without dowels (note that CRC pavements would not use
dowels).

27. In the program, various default conditions have been set, such as:

0 the optional representative distribution of axle groups for rural and urban
conditions from Appendix I of the Austroads Guide,

0 the design traffic over the pavement life is based on design life, a constant annual
growth rate, and the number of commercial vehicle axle groups per day, and

0 the determination of the allowable repetitions for fatigue and erosion distress
modes.

28. The program allows for any axle spectrum that has been derived from site data,
and includes twin steer axles.

PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE , PART 3 179

29. The determination ofthe effective snbgrade strength is calculated by the user and
the input is limited to the same increments (ie 5, 10, 15, 20, etc) as expressed in Tables
9.2 and 9.3 of the Austroads Guide. This limitation is unlikely to make the design too
conservative as the incremental change in factors is low at each increment.

30. The determination of equivalent stresses and erosion factors are derived from
programmed tables in RIGID 5.0 and appears in a simple tabular format as shown in
Figure 2. Default allowable load repetitions for fatigue and erosion distress modes have
been based on algorithms from a paper by Packard and Tayabji (1985) and adjusted for
metric units. The RTA has modified the allowable repetitions for tandem and triaxle
loads based on the recommendations from Tayabji (RTA Technical Instructions). These
recommendations lower the allowable repetitions by two and three for the tandem and
triaxle groups respectively.

31 . During and after the input procedure the program has many features to facilitate
variations of the site information or the design parameters.

32. An iterative process, with user inputs, is required for the determination of an
appropriate design base thickness. The feature of this program is the ability to make
changes to the design and get immediate results, and therefore, increasing the
productivity of the pavement engineer.

33. The output to the program consists of:

0 On-screen results of the cumulative fatigue and erosion distress as a percentage of

allowable axle load repetitions as shown in Figure 4. The designer can verify from
the output that both estimates of the distress level are below 100%.
0 A hard copy option presented as a report in one or more of the following formats ;
(a) Optional Summary; (b) the listing ofCULWAY data ; and (c) the calculations.

Figure 4 The on screen output of the total fatigue and erosion calculations. The
program will note (ie Is Acceptable) if the total fatigue or erosion are less than
100%.

180 PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE, PART 3

 CONCLUSION

34. The 1992 Austroads rigid pavement thickness design procedure is simple to use,
yet lengthy when using the work sheets in Appendix I. This paper has suggested a
spreadsheet approach to the calculation of the total fatigue and erosion distress for each
commercial vehicle axle group. The detailed algorithms in this paper also provide the
pavement designer with greater efficiencies in the design procedure.

35. The RTA's Pavements Branch has developed a sophisticated spreadsheet utilising
the macros functions in Lotus 123 . This program incorporates the stress ratio and
erosion factor tables in the Austroads Guide and pavement designers can complete the
thickness design in less than five minutes. The program designers have incorporated
sufficient flexibility in the spreadsheet to allow standard or site specific CULWAY traffic
distribution data. The program is inexpensive and allows designers to explore various
pavement options to optimise the rigid pavement base and subbase type.

REFERENCES

AUSTROADS (1992). Pavement Design, A guide to the Structural Design of Road

Pavements (AUSTROADS : Sydney)

PACKARD, RG and TAYABTI, SD (1985) New PCA Thickness Design Procedure for
Concrete Highway and Street Pavements Concrete Pavement Design & Rehabilitation
Conference, Purdue, USA

I
PROCEEDINGS ROADS 96 CONFERENCE, PART 3 181