Road II Chap 1
Road II Chap 1
Road II Chap 1
Chapter one
Introduction
Tamru T.
2013 ec (2021/20 2nd Sem 1
Introduction
General
The field of pavement design is dynamic & the concepts are
changing with time as technology develops and new
equipment emerges for site investigation, material testing
and traffic data collection, and new data become available.
In the early stage, pavement design was carried out by a rule-
of-thumb procedure based entirely on past experience.
Through the observation of performances of the already
constructed roads, highway engineers became aware that
pavement performance is dependent on the subgrade soils.
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Introduction cont....
Overview of Pavement Structures
A pavement is a layered structure that:
have sufficient total thickness and internal strength to carry
expected traffic loads, and distribute them over the
subgrade soil without overstressing;
have adequate properties to prevent or minimize the
penetration or internal accumulation of moisture; and
have a surface that is reasonably smooth and skid resistant
at the same time, as well as, reasonably resistant to wear,
distortion and deterioration by vehicle loads and weather.
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Introduction cont....
Types of pavements:
Earth Roads
Gravel Surfaced Roads
Flexible Pavements
Rigid Pavements
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Gravel Surfaced Roads
Earth Roads
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Introduction cont....
Flexible Pavement
A flexible pavement is one, which has low flexural strength,
and the load is largely transmitted to the subgrade soil through
the lateral distribution of stresses with increasing depth.
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Flexible Pavement (Cont’d)
Types of flexible pavement constructions
Conventional flexible pavement,
Full-depth asphalt pavement, and
Contained rock asphalt mat (CRAM) construction (which
is still in the experimental stage and has not been widely
accepted for practical use).
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Flexible Pavement (Cont’d)
Conventional flexible pavements
Are multilayered structures with better materials on top
where the intensity of stress is high and inferior materials at
the bottom where the intensity is low.
This design principle makes possible to use local materials
and usually results in a most economical design.
This is particularly true in regions where high-quality
materials are expensive but local materials of inferior quality
are readily available.
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Flexible Pavement (Cont’d)
Starting from the top, a conventional flexible pavement
normally consists of
• Surface course,
• Base course,
• Subbase course,
• Compacted subgrade,
• Natural subgrade.
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Flexible Pavement (Cont’d)
Full-depth asphalt pavements
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Introduction cont...
Comparison of Rigid and Flexible Pavements
The manner in which vehicle loads are transmitted to the
subgrade soil,
Design precision,
Design life,
Maintenance requirements,
Initial cost,
Suitability for stage construction,
Surface characteristics,
Permeability, and
Traffic dislocation during construction.
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Introduction cont...
Highway and Airport Pavements
The gross-weight of an airplane is usually greater than that of
a heavy truck, but the number of load repetitions on airport
pavements is usually smaller than that on highway
pavements.
The arrangement and spacing of wheel loads on airport and
highway pavements are different.
A typical tyre pressure on highway pavements is in the
vicinity of 0.5 MPa while aircrafts use a tyre pressure up to 3
MPa which is an important factor in the design of the
materials in the upper layer of the pavements.
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Highway and Airport Pavements (cont’d)
Vehicle loads are applied near to the edge of highway
pavements but far away from the outside edge of airport
pavements.
Unlike highway pavements, airfield pavements are subjected to
an impact loading.
The design load of airport pavements is the wheel load of the
largest aircraft during takeoff time due to heavy fuel weight.
Although wheel loads can be used as design loads, number of
repetitions of standard axles is the commonly used design
parameter for highway pavements.
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Introduction cont...
Basic Design Factors
Traffic Loading:
• Loading configuration;
• Number of repetitions;
• Tyre pressure; and
• Speed of traffic loading
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Basic Design Factors (Cont’d)
Environment:
• Temperature,
o Flexible pavement – elastic/viscoelastic properties of
bituminous materials
o Rigid pavement – warping/curling stresses
o Frost in the subgrade - heave and stronger subgrade in
the winter but a much weaker subgrade in the spring
• Precipitation
o Water requirement during construction;
o Strength of pavement structure; and
o Surface water drainage.
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Basic Design Factors (Cont’d)
Materials:
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Basic Design Factors (Cont’d)
Performance and Failure Criteria:
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Basic Design Factors (Cont’d)
Performance and Failure Criteria:
• Gravel roads – defects include: dustiness, potholes, stoniness,
corrugations, ruts, cracks, ravelling, erosion, slipperiness,
impassibility and loss of wearing course material – function
of properties of materials of construction, alignment, volume
of traffic, and etc.
• Flexible pavement – fatigue cracking ; rutting; and thermal
cracking
• Rigid pavement - fatigue cracking; pumping ; and joint
deterioration 20
Failures Pictures
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