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Projects Based Learning [PBL]

Report

BY,
Sourav Kumar Das

Student ID : 3182440

7𝑡ℎ Semester

Session : Winter - 2019

Depertment of Civil Engineering [Regular]

University of Global Village

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Motivation of The Study :

Pavement is an essential component of proper road construction. The structure of the pavement is
designed to bend and deflect according to external factors like traffic loads and the
weather.Essentially, flexible pavement is more adaptable to the elements to which it’s exposed.

The initial cost of mixing and applying flexible pavement is low and with excellent
regularmaintenance, it has a lifespan of about 10-15 years. Flexible pavement is applied in
extremely thick layers, which gives it the ability to withstand heavy and more frequent traffic
flows. For this type of pavement repair work is fairly easy and no joints required during
installation, which makes it the ideal choice for major roadways and highways.

Abstract :

Pavement is a designed structure laid on an area, intended to sustain vehicular traffic. The function
of pavement is to transmit loads to the sub - base and under lying soil. Now a day’s flexible
pavements contain sand and gravel or crushed stone compacted with a binder of bituminous
material.

Pavements are generally classified as Flexible and Rigid pavements. Flexible placements are those
which have low flexural strength and are flexible in their structural action under loads. Rigid
pavements are those which possess noteworthy flexural strength and flexural rigidity.

Pavements are major assets of highway infrastructure. It arealso required for the smooth, safe and
systematic passage of traffic. In Bangladesh, mostly the flexible pavements deteriorate faster than
expected design life. In the project report, an attempt is made to design a road based on the
principles of Flexible pavement design.

Introduction :
For economic and construction of highways, correct design of the thickness of pavements for
different conditions of traffic and sub-grades is essential. The science of pavement design is
relatively new.

The flexible pavements consist of wearing surface built over a base course and they rest on
compacted sub grade. The design of a flexible pavement is based on the principle that a surface

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load is dissipated by carrying it deep into the ground through successive layer of granular
materials. Flexible pavements with asphalt concrete surface courses are used all around the world.

Fig 1: Flexible Pavement

Objectives of the project :

1. The surface of pavement should be stable and non-yielding, to allows the heavy wheel
loads of the road traffic to move with least possible rolling resistance.
2. The road should be even along the longitudinal profile to enable the fast vehicles to
move safely and comfortably at the design speed.
3. A pavement layer is considered more effective or superior, if it is able to distribute
thewheel load stress through a larger area per unit death of the layer.
4. The elastic deformation of the pavement should be within the permissible limits, so that
the pavement can sustain a large number of repeated load applications during the design
life.
5. It is always desirable to construct the pavement well above the maximum level of the
ground water to keep the sub-grade relatively dry even during monsoons. At high
moisture contents, the soil becomes weaker and soft and starts yielding under heavy
wheel loads, thus increasing the tractive resistance.

Making procedure of the content :

Flexible pavements contain bitumen or asphalt layer as wearing course and supports loads through
bearing. They have low flexural strength.

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The composition of Flexible Pavement are as follows,

1. Surface Course
2. Binder Course
3. Base Course
4. Sub-base Course
5. Frost Protection Layer
6. Soil Sub-grade
A. Prime Coat
B. Tack Coat
C. Seal Coat
7. Rolling

1. Surface Course :

Surface course or wearing course is the top most layer of flexible pavement which has direct
contact with the vehicular loads. Since it is directly in contact with traffic, good quality aggregates
and high dense bitumen or asphalt is recommended for the construction of surface course.

Fig 2: Surface Course

The main function of surface course is to provide skid-resistance surface, friction and drainage for
the pavement. It should be water tight against surface water infiltration. The thickness of surface
course generally provided is 25 to 50 mm.

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2. Binder Course :

Binder course is also constructed using aggregates and bitumen but with less quality than materials
used for surface course. In general, its thickness is about 50 to 100 mm. If economy is not a problem,
binder course and surface course can be constructed monotonically using good quality materials with
100 to 150 mm thickness. The function of binder course is to transfer the loads coming from surface
course to the base course.

Fig 3: Binder Course

3. Base Course :

The base course is important layer of pavement structure and it distributes the loads from top layers to
the underneath Sub-base and sub-grade layers. It provides structural support for the pavement surface.
It is constructed with hard and durable aggregates which may either stabilized or granular or both.

Fig 4: Laying Base Course

The thickness of base course must be great enough to reduce the load capacity on sub-grade and Sub-
base courses. The minimum base course thickness recommended is 100 mm. sub surface drainage
system can be provided with in the base course.

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4. Sub-base Course :

The Sub-base course is provided beneath the base course and it also functions as same as base course.
If the sub-grade soil is strong and stiff, then there is no need to sub-base course. Granular aggregates
are used to construct sub-base course. If sub-grade is weak minimum 100 mm thick sub-base course
should be provided.

Fig 5: Laying Sub-base Course

5. Frost Protection Layer :

Frost protection layer is provided for the pavements in colder regions where temperatures are very
low. It is generally provided between Sub-base and sub-grade soil. The function of frost
protection layer is to prevent damage of pavement from frost heaves, which are formed by freezing
of groundwater. A good quality base course and Sub-base courses provided can also serves frost
protection layer.

6. Soil Sub-grade :

Sub-grade is the bottom most layer which is nothing but natural soil layer compacted up to
required depth generally about 150 to 300 mm to receive the loads coming from top layers. This
layer is termed as foundation for the pavement system.
The sub-grade should be strong enough to take the stresses and also it is important to keep the
stresses coming from top layers should be within the limit of sub-grade capacity. To reduce the
amount of stress on soil sub-grade, provide thick layers of base course, Sub-base course and
surface course.

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 Fig 6: Compacting Soil Sub-grade

Apart from the above layers, three types of coats or finishes are provided in flexible pavement
system which are as follows,

A. Prime Coat
B. Tack Coat
C. Seal Coat

A. Prime Coat :

Prime coat is provided between base course and binder course to develop strong and water
tight bong between them. Low viscous cutback bitumen is sprayed on the top of base
course as prime coat material.

B. Tack Coat :

Tack coat is provided on the top of binder course to develop strong bond between the
binder course and surface course. Asphalt emulsion diluted with water is used as tack coat
material.

C. Seal Coat :

Seal coat is provided directly on the top of surface course to make it watertight and to
provide skid resistance to the surface. Mixture of Emulsified asphalt, mineral fillers and
water is used as seal coat material.

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 Fig 7: Layers of Prime Coat, Tack Coat & Seal Coat

7. Rolling :

It is equally and thoroughly compacted by static rolling at a speed not more than 5km per hour or
use vibration. In rolling a graded area with a side slope, as a crowned or banked road, you should
work from the edge to the center of the of the road which is known as camber.

The static rolling is done by (8 – 12) tonnes roller and the intermediate rolling is done with a fixed
wheel pneumatic roller of (15 – 30) tonnes having a tyre pressure of 7kg per sq.cm. The wheels of
the roller are kept damp with water. The number of passes required depends on the thickness of the
layer. The final rolling or finishing is done by 8 to 10 tonne tandem roller.

Fig 8: Rolling

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Outcome :

When load acts on the pavement then load spreads on every underlying layer. Type of material
used to construct different layers depends on the load bearing capacity of each separate layer.
Layer with the highest bearing capacity material will be on the top most layers and the layer with
the lowest load bearing capacity will be on the bottom of all layers.

In flexible pavements, cost of every layer also depends on the load bearing capacity. Top most
layer will the most expensive one, because it is carrying the maximum load and the bottom layer
will the least expansive because of minimum load bearing capacity. Therefore, flexible pavements
are only placed where underlying strata has good load bearing capacity properties.

Application of the content on civil field :

There is great scope of application of geosynthetics as structural entities in flexible pavements.

Flexible pavements reflect deformations of subgrade and from within the layered components to
the pavement surface. Flexible pavements carrying higher traffic loads invariably have asphaltic
surfaces. Pavements for lighter traffic as in rural areas may be unpaved. Conventionally, these
pavements do not incorporate any geosynthetic or any other type of reinforcement.

Conclusion :

Major highways constructed in the world are of bituminous surfacing. For example, 86% of rural
highways and 78% of urban roads in the Bangladesh are of flexible type. Most of the runways in
the world have flexible pavements. However, the choice of type of a pavement is governed by the
type of traffic and soil conditions. In case of areas where soil sub-grade is weak (like clay) and
drainage conditions are also difficult to maintain at desired level of performance (like in urban
areas or in situations where road passes through habitation) there rigid pavement can be a good
choice. But when soil subgrade is of good quality and traffic is also not very heavy, flexible
pavements can be more economical. The biggest advantage with flexible pavement is that they can
be made in stages.

The economic analysis done by an expert committee for the upcoming 55 - kilometer Dhaka-
Mawa-Bhanga access controlled expressway also indicated that if stage construction is adopted,

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then flexible pavement will be much cheaper than rigid pavement.

Fig 9: Dhaka – Mawa – Bhanga Expressway

References :

➢ Highway Engineering :Planning, Design & Operations By:

✓ Cristopher
✓ M.Cunningham
✓ Daniel J.findle
✓ Thomas H.brown
➢ Highway Engineering By:
✓ S.K.Khanna
✓ C.E.G.Justo

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