TRAN3001

Highway Engineering
Lecture 7
Structural Design
Flexible Pavement
Design

Pavement Layers

Structural Design
The purpose of structural design is to limit the
stresses transferred to the foundation (soil) by traffic
to a safe level at which deformation of the foundation
is insignificant while at the same time ensuring that
the road structure does not deteriorate to any serious
extent within a specified period of time (design period,
10 to 40 years).
Pavement wear/distress is the degradation of
pavement quality due to climate (water and
temperature) as well as loading by traffic. When roads
are designed it is assumed that adequate routine and
emergency maintenance will be carried out during
the design period of the road and that at the end of
the design period a relatively low level of

deterioration will have occurred.

Structural Design (Contd)

Wearing course
Basecourse
Pavement
Subbase

Surfacing

(asphalt)
Roadbase
Formation
Subgrade

Elements of a Flexible Pavement

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement
Whether it is a pavement for a major high
speed highway or a local/residential road
the basic structural elements are
essentially the same, surfacing and distinct
layers superimposed on the subgrade.
Surfacing
This is the uppermost layer of the
pavement and will normally consist of
bituminous surfacing material.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
Surfacing (Contd)
For residential and other minor roads the
bituminous surfacing may be a single layer
of asphalt or even a surface dressing
comprising sprayed (cut-back) bitumen
overlain with stone chips.
For major and high speed roads the
bituminous surfacing usually comprises two
layers.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
Surfacing (Contd)
These are known as the wearing course (top
layer) and the basecourse or binder course
(bottom layer).
As the traffic runs on the wearing course this
must be a high quality, durable and
impervious surface. The basecourse, which
is not as impervious, etc. as the wearing
course, acts as a regulating layer which
improves the riding quality of the wearing
course.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
Surfacing (Contd)
The primary functions of the surfacing are to
provide a safe and comfortable travelling
surface for traffic and to protect the underlying
layers from the adverse effects of climate and
traffic (vehicles braking, skidding, etc.).
For design purposes the surfacing is generally
not considered to contribute to the strength of
the pavement, which errs on the side of safety.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
Roadbase
With respect to structure, this is the most
important layer of a flexible pavement as it
has to distribute the applied surface loads
safely to the underlying layers.
As the main load-spreading layer of the
pavement, roadbase material must be of
high quality and for major/high speed
highways crushed stone will usually be
specified.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
Subbase (Contd)
This underlies the roadbase and is the
secondary load-spreading layer of the
pavement. It will generally consist of a
material of lower quality than that used in
the roadbase such as unprocessed natural
gravel.
The subbase also serves as a separating
layer preventing contamination of the
roadbase by the subgrade material.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement
The design of a flexible pavement is based on
the lateral distribution of the traffic load with
depth which transmits the pressure from the
top to the underlying layers of the pavement
and then to the subgrade (foundation).
The load is distributed over a small area at the
surface, but as the depth increases, the same
load is distributed over a larger area.

Structural Design (Contd)

Road-

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
This confirms that the highest quality
material needs to be at the surface and as
the depth increases, lower quality materials
can be used.
When the load is removed the pavement
layers rebound. Any permanent deformation,
however, small, can accumulate over many
load repetitions and lead to significant
deterioration of the pavement.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavements (Contd)
For flexible pavements, the following are the visible signs
of
wear/distress:
Cracking
Cracking can originate in the bituminous surfacing at the
top of the pavement because of fatigue caused by the
number of applied wheel loads.
Cracking can also result from tensile stresses due to
temperature changes.
Reflective cracking of the (top) bituminous surfacing
occurs as a result of cracks or fractures in the
underlying layers.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
Rutting
Rutting is the development of depressions in the
pavement surface along the wheel paths,
typically with a width of several centimetres and
a length of tens to thousands of metres.
The two main categories are primary rutting,
which is due to permanent deformation of the
bituminous surfacing and secondary rutting due
to permanent deformation in the layers below the
asphalt.

Structural Design (Contd)

Bleeding
Bleeding presents as black shiny spots on the surface
of the pavement and causes low skid resistance. It is
the result of poor mix design with too much bitumen.
Ravelling
This is the loss of stones in the surface of the
pavement as a result of failure of the bond between
the aggregate and the binder.
Potholes
A pothole is a localized collapse in an area of the
pavement structure which is weakened, for example
by defective road construction or ingress of water.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process
The three main steps to be followed in
designing a new road pavement are:
estimate the amount of traffic and the
cumulative number of equivalent
standard axles that will use the road
over the selected design life
assess the strength of the subgrade soil
over which the road is to be built

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
select the most economical combination
of pavement materials and layer
thicknesses that will provide satisfactory
service over the design life of the
pavement
The deterioration of paved roads caused by
traffic results from both the magnitude of
the axle loads and the number of times
these loads are applied.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
For the purposes of pavement design
consideration is given not only to the total
number of vehicles that will use the road
but also the axle loads of these vehicles.
The loads imposed by private cars and
similar sized vehicles are insignificant in
terms of structural damage to the road.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
For the structural design of the pavement, cars
and similar sized vehicles can be ignored and
only the total number and axle loading of the
heavy vehicles, defined as those having an
unladen (empty) weight of 3000 kg or more, need
to be considered.
Particularly for lightly trafficked roads,
construction traffic can be a significant
component of overall traffic loading and the
designs should take this into account.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
For flexible pavements a design life of
between 10 to 20 years from the date of
opening is appropriate.
The longer design life makes it more
difficult to forecast future traffic trends.
The end of the design life does not mean
that the road can no longer be used.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
It means that the pavement will need to
be strengthened so that it can continue to
carry traffic satisfactorily for a further
period.
In order to determine the total traffic over
the design life of the road, the first step is
to estimate baseline (current) traffic flows.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
The estimate should be the (Annual) Average Daily
Traffic (ADT) currently using the route, classified
into the vehicle categories of cars, light goods
vehicles, trucks (heavy goods vehicles) and buses.
The ADT is defined as the sum of the total annual
traffic in both directions (measured separately)
divided by 365.
Because automatic counters for classifying vehicles
are expensive and down for periods of
maintenance, manual counting methods are more
common.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
Usually data from traffic counts over a shorter
period is extrapolated to arrive at the ADT.
To improve the accuracy of the count actual
traffic flows should be recorded for a week
(seven consecutive days) several times a
year.
Counts are avoided on days when travel
activity is abnormal, like public holidays.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
For most days 16-hour counts will suffice,
however at least two days per week should
have a full 24-hour count, preferably one
on a week-day and one on a week-end.
The 16-hour values should be converted to
24-hour values in the same proportion as
the 16hour/24-hour split on those days when full
24-hour counts have been carried out.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
Traffic forecasting is an uncertain process,
especially in developing economies.
Generally growth in three categories of
traffic is investigated: normal traffic,
diverted traffic and generated traffic.
Normal traffic is the traffic which will use
the route whether or not the pavement is
improved.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
Diverted traffic refers to the traffic which will
prefer to use the new/improved route to get
from the same origin to the same destination.
Generated traffic will use the new/improved
road due to a cost or time reduction over an
alternative means of transport or because of
the increased development that is brought
about by the investment in the road.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
When using (reliable) past traffic data under what
are expected to be basically the same economic
conditions the growth in traffic can be extrapolated
forward for as many years as the data exists from
the past.
Alternatively growth in traffic can be related linearly
to anticipated growth in Gross Domestic Product
(GDP).
Apart from overall increase in economic activity in
the country, specific local developments can lead to
steady growth in traffic on a new/ improved route.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
For purposes of the design the cumulative
number of equivalent standard axles can be
determined from axle load surveys.
These surveys usually involve weighing
samples of the traffic using portable
vehicle-weighing equipment.
There can be significant differences
between the two streams of traffic using a
road.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
Vehicles travelling one way, for example from a
quarry or dock, are heavily loaded but are
empty on the return journey.
In such cases the results from the more heavily
trafficked lane should be used when converting
commercial vehicle flows to the equivalent
number of standard axles for pavement design.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
The damage that vehicles do to a road
depends on the axle loads of the
vehicles.
For pavement design purposes the
damaging power of axles is related to a
'standard' axle of 8.16 tonnes (8,160 kg)
using equivalence factors which have
been derived from empirical studies.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
In order to determine the cumulative axle load
damage that a pavement will sustain during its
design life, the total number of commercial, i.e.
heavy vehicles (over 3,000 kg unladen weight)
that will use the road over this period must be
expressed in terms of the cumulative number
of equivalent standard axles (esa/esal).

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
The equivalence factors (EFs) for vehicle
axles can be determined from the following
equation:
EF = (Axle Load/8160) 4.5
As shown by the equation the empirical
evidence is that as loads on a pavement
increase there is an exponential increase in
their damaging effect.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
For a vehicle with multiple axles the EF is
computed for each axle and then the
vehicles mean EF.
The mean EF for each type or class of
vehicle travelling in each direction must
then be determined.
This method of computing the EF should
always be used as calculations based on the
average axle load are incorrect and lead to
large errors.

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
Average Axle Loading (incorrect)
= 7,000 kg
EF = (7000/8160) 4.5
= 0.50
(Correct) Sum each axle EF
(5000/8160)4.5 + (9000/8160) 4.5
= 0.11 + 1.55
= 1.66
EF (average) = 0.83

5,000 kg 9,000 kg

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
The procedure for determine the
cumulative equivalent standard axles over
the design life of the road is as follows:
establish the average daily one-directional
traffic flow for each class of vehicle
forecast the total one-directional traffic
flow for each class of vehicle (based on
given growth rate)

Structural Design (Contd)

Flexible Pavement (Contd)
The Design Process (Contd)
determine the mean EF (equivalence factor)
of each class of vehicle for each direction
compute the product of the cumulative onedirectional traffic flow for each class of
vehicle and the mean EF for that class
add the above products to get the
cumulative equivalent standard axle loading
for each direction. (Use the higher value for
the design).