Pavement Design

CE 453 Lecture 28

Objectives

Understand and complete ESAL

calculation
Know variables involved in and be
able to calculate required thickness
of rigid and flexible pavements

AASHTO Pavement Design

Method Considerations

Pavement Performance
Traffic
Roadbed Soil
Materials of Construction
Environment
Drainage
Reliability
Life-Cycle Costs
Shoulder Design
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Two Categories of Roadway Pavements

Rigid Pavement
Flexible Pavement

Rigid Pavement Typical Applications

High volume traffic lanes
Freeway to freeway connections
Exit ramps with heavy traffic
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Advantages of Rigid Pavement

Good durability
Long service life
Withstand repeated flooding and
subsurface water without deterioration

Disadvantages of Rigid Pavement

May lose non-skid surface with time

Needs even sub-grade with uniform
settling
May fault at transverse joints

Flexible Pavement Typical

Applications

Traffic lanes
Auxiliary lanes
Ramps
Parking areas
Frontage roads
Shoulders
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Advantages to Flexible Pavement

Adjusts to limited differential

settlement
Easily repaired
Additional thickness added any time
Non-skid properties do not deteriorate
Quieter and smoother
Tolerates a greater range of
temperatures
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Disadvantages of Flexible Pavement

Loses some flexibility and cohesion with

time
Needs resurfacing sooner than PC
concrete
Not normally chosen where water is
expected

Basic AASHTO Flexible

Pavement Design Method

Determine the desired terminal

serviceability, pt
Convert traffic volumes to number of
equivalent 18-kip single axle loads (ESAL)
Determine the structural number, SN
Determine the layer coefficients, ai
Solve layer thickness equations for
individual layer thickness
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Basic AASHTO Rigid Pavement

Design Method

Select terminal serviceability

Determine number of ESALs
Determine the modulus of sub-grade
reaction
Determine the slab thickness

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Variables included in
Nomographs

Reliability, R

Incorporates a degree of certainty into

design process
Ensures various design alternatives will
last the analysis period

Resilient Modulus for Roadbed Soil,

MR

Generally obtained from laboratory

testing

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Variables included in
Nomographs

Effective Modulus of Sub-Grade Reaction,

k

Considers:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Sub-base type
Sub-base thickness
Loss of support
Depth to rigid foundation

Drainage Coefficient, mi

Use in layer thickness determination

Applies only to base and sub-base
See Tables 20.15 (flexible) and 21.9 (rigid)
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Flexible Pavement Design

Pavement structure is a multi-layered elastic

system, material is characterized by certain
properties

Modulus of elasticity
Resilient modulus
Poisson ratio

Wheel load causes stress distribution (fig 20.2)

Horizontal: tensile or compressive

Vertical: maximum are compressive, decrease with
depth
Temperature distribution: affects magnitude of
stresses

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Components

Sub-grade (roadbed) course: natural material that

serves as the foundation of the pavement structure
Sub-base course: above the sub-grade, superior to
sub-grade course
Base course: above the sub base, granular materials
such as crushed stone, crushed or uncrushed slag,
gravel, and sand
Surface course: upper course of the road pavement,
should withstand tire pressures, resistant to abrasive
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forces of traffic, provide skid-resistant driving

Economic Analysis

Different treatments results in

different designs
Evaluate cost of different
alternatives

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Sensitivity Analysis

Input different values of traffic

volume
Compare resulting differences in
pavement
Fairly significant differences in ADT
do not yield equally significant
differences in pavement thickness
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OTHER ISSUES

Drainage
Joints
Grooving (noise vs. hydroplaning)
Rumble strips
Climate
Level and type of usage
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FAILURE EXAMPLES

Primarily related to design or lifecycle, not construction

All images from Distress
Identification Manual for the LongTerm Pavement Performance
Program, Publication No. FHWA-RD03-031, June 2003
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FATIGUE CRACKING

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RUTTING

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SHOVING

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PUMPING

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