TERM PAPER ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: DEFECTS OF FLEXIBLE

PAVEMENT AND ITS MAINTENANCE

GROUP
AMIERUL IZZUDDEN B MD ANAUR
(2019630754)

DEC 2020 ECG524 PAVEMENT ENGINEERING

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGES

1. INTRODUCTION 1-2

2. METHODOLGY

a) Identification of the flexible pavement defects. 2

b) Determine the causes and suitable treatment to 3

the respective pavement defects.

3. DISCUSSION

a) the classification of defects. 3-4

b) The cause and suitable treatment measure. 4-8

4. CONCLUSION 8–9

5. REFERENCES 9

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Introduction

In order to for people and goods to move from one place to another is ultimately
depending to roadways. according to Zulufqar (2017) the key for economic, industrial, social
and cultural growth of a country is a good quality of transportation infrastructure. To provide
a smoother and a comfortable journey to the road consumer, the pavement which is the surface
of the road should be in a good condition. Bad condition of pavement can bring many negatives
effects and its includes lethal accidents. These pavements commonly can be classified into two
type, which is rigid and flexible pavement. The differences of these two pavement can be
categorize in many aspects and one of it is definitely the material use for the pavement
construction.

Flexible pavement is made up of bitumen as the material surface course with base and subbase
courses underneath. The common bituminous material use is asphalt which is a vicious material
that allows notable plastic deformation. The asphalt surface usually placed on top of a gavel
base and depending to its temperature, the asphalt can be classified as hot mix asphalt (HMA)
and cold mix asphalt.

From the figure above, the distribution of load of this type of pavement is in layered system
where it distributes the stress from the loading above to subgrade beneath in a comparatively
small area. The initial cost flexible is pavement is fairly low which makes this type of pavement
more popular. After a few years, the pavement will enter deterioration process which will make
work of maintenance needed in order to ensure the road is in service.

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According to Zumrawi (2015), when the road is in service which is open to the traffic, the
pavement deterioration process will begin. Where it is a very slow process which will not show
any changes to the pavement but after a quiet of time the rate of pavement deterioration may
be faster and will show any visible changes to pavement surface. To make sure the
serviceability of the road a regular maintenance work should carry out by authorities. Even
though the cost of pavement maintenance is high when compared to the initial cost but with
proper design and plan during maintenance can minimize the maintenance cost.

Maintenance work just not only focus on repairing the pavement, it also includes recognizing
the defects of pavement, planning, programming and scheduling the actual applications in the
site and monitoring after the maintenance work. This complete is very important to guarantee
the conditions and serviceability and at the same time, it will lengthen the lifespan of the roads
which will benefits its design life. Before the work begin in the field, several activities need to
be completed such as determine the common defects on the flexible pavement, the cause of the
defects, and the treatment measure need to be taken. After that smooth traffic can be obtained,
when all the defects have been repaired.

This term paper will emphasize the types of defects commonly to the pavement and also shows
the cause of each defects. The appropriate treatment also will be identify in order to rectify the
defects of pavement.

Methodology

a) Identification of the flexible pavement defects.

The identification of defects can be obtained by physical inspection on the pavement.

According Zulufqar (2017), the maintenance work can be classified into three type which are
routine maintenance, periodic maintenance and special repairs. For each type of maintenance
can be categorized in the following group of flexible pavement respectively. The routine
maintenance is suitable for roads that have defects and failures which occurs frequently that
are caused by insufficient road design structure. The roads that have bad pavement surface that
resulting a poor experience to the road consumer is suitable for periodic maintenance. Special
repair is usually for the road that have good condition but because of unexpected reasons the
road cannot be in service due to serious defects such as large potholes and cracks. Sometimes
the defects can spread throughout the road stretch.

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b) Determine the causes and suitable treatment to the respective pavement defects.

Pavement defects will always cause by either traffic which came from the imposed load and
environmental which other that imposed load to the pavement. After the defects have been
identify and classify to its type of defects, the cause of the defects may can be obtained. The
treatment method that suitable to the problem also can be determined.

Discussion

1) the classification of defects.

the flexible pavement commonly has three type of failure which consist of cracking, surface
deformation, and lastly disintegration.

a) Cracks
Pavement that encounter cracks usually will show a visible condition to its surface. The
noticeable discontinuities in surface will show how bad and serious the pavement
condition. The opening in the surface due to cracks will allow water to enter beneath
the surface course and this will accelerate the deterioration of pavement. Cracking also
will have caused discomfort to the road consumer and also minimizing the road safety.
Cracks can come in many formed and shapes that have different cause and way to treat
the defects. The following types of cracks are alligator cracking, longitudinal cracking,
Block cracking, edge cracking and Centre cracking.

b) Surface deformation
Surface deformation is caused the fragility of one of the layer in the pavement which
allow movement during in service. Rutting and shoving is one of many surface
deformations that may occur to pavement. Rutting is a permanent downward
deformation on the pavement surface. It usually resembles wheel paths of vehicles.
While shoving is a plastic movement on the surface course which results in bulging in
the pavement. This deformation definite will deform the subgrade beneath. Ruts on the
pavement will interfere with the surface run-off and will formed a puddle. A formation
of puddle on pavement will caused aquaplaning that makes moving vehicles skid and
lose control.

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 c) Disintegration
Once water have entered into the pavement layer due to structural surface failure such
as cracking, each layer of course will become wet and start to disintegrates. Thus
formation of potholes will occur which result of growth of surface failure. While patch
is a portion that usually in rectangular shape of pavement that have been removed and
replaced with new portion of pavement. Sometimes, the patch does not integrate with
the existing pavement due to few reasons. Defects like potholes and cracking can take
places on the imperfect patch.

2. The cause and suitable treatment measure.

a) Cracking
i) Alligator Cracking

This kind cracks which also known as fatigue cracking. This consist of a series of
connected cracks that resemble the skin of alligator. The cracks formed small and
irregular shapes of pavement pieces on surface. The causes of this type of cracking is
due to the brittleness of binder because of overheating of bitumen on early stage of
asphalt preparation. Insufficient thickness and overloading imposed to the pavement
can be root to this problem. The treatment measures that can be done to fix the problem
are fill the cracks with low viscosity binder if the pavement surface is still intact with
each other. For cracks with big gap, either slurry seal and sand bituminous premix
patching can be used. Fog seal or emulsified bitumen can be broom into the cracks if
the fine and large area cracks occur. For damaged surface, the rehabilitation process
needed to treat the pavement.

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ii) Block cracking

This cracks usually appears in square or rectangular shape on pavement surface. the
variation of size crack size usually in range of 1000 square cm to 10000 square cm. this
cracks sometimes a combination of longitudinal and transverse cracks where both
cracks intersecting with each other. The one of the cause of this problem is insufficient
compaction during the construction process. The treatment measure that suitable with
this defects is by laying interface treatment and proceed with providing the surface layer
including to original existing pavement surface.

iii) Longitudinal cracking

The cracks usually run parallel to the pavement center line, and sometimes the cracks
will be visible at the joint of pavement which is between the pavement and the shoulder
of road. The cracks happened because of the repeating process of wetting and drying

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 below the shoulder due to bad performance of drainage. The appropriate treatment for
this problem would be the method with fatigue or alligator cracking.

b) Surface deformation

i) Rutting

This case is usually happened due to the weak pavement layer due to water penetration
into the pavement. Insufficient compaction also can cause rutting on pavement surface.
The level of severity of rutting can be determined through the width of rut. If the width
of rut is small in size, it shows that the surface pavement fails and if the width is big,
then the subgrade has fails. Another cause of this problem would be heavy channelized
traffic where only the surface pavement in the middle does not have many imposed load
compared to other part of surface. The interference of subgrade clay into the base course
also would the cause of defects on pavement. The appropriate ways to rectify this
problem would be fill the rut with premix with dense graded and follows with the
compaction process. For the case of rut due to subgrade failure, excavation and
rectification works on the subgrade should be done.

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 ii) Shoving

The shaving commonly happened at area where traffic usually starts and stop or at
sharps corner like intersection. The phenomenon usually take place when there a lack
of stability in the mix of surface or base course such as too much binder, the binder too
soft and too many part of fines aggregates. The traffic also causes shoving to the
pavement surface when the act force from the vehicles wheel when accelerate and
decelerate. Inadequacy of bonding asphalt course and sublayer course also can cause
shoving at the surface pavement. The suitable ways to restore the quality of pavement
is by filling the area of shoving with premix material after put on the bond coat for
shoving with small size. If the depression is quite big and deep, milling the bituminous
surface down to the beneath course would be needed and replace with appropriate
premix patch.

c) Disintegration
i) Potholes

These bowl shape of defects on pavement would come in various size and depth.
No matter the size of potholes, the defects definitely would give many negative

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 effects to the consumer. The situation prone to happened when there is entry of
water in to the pavement layer. Error during construction which is insufficient of
bitumen in a specific area would also contribute to the problem. The suitable
remedial measure for this problem would be by patch work or called patch repair.
The pot holes need to clean first before filling it with appropriate premix which can
be open or dense graded patch depending specific condition.

ii) Patch deterioration

Patch failure due to low quality of mix design for the patch would cause the patch
to deteriorate and caused new problem to arise. When the small potholes do not
been repaired punctually it may cause the patch work does not sufficient to solve
the problem due the problem have worsen. Unsettled patch to be in service for
traffic would also make the patch to not last long as intended. The treatment
method that should be implied is to have a correct of design mix and select the
proper materials such aggregates and binder depending on the climate and
specification. The patch also need to bonded to the existing bituminous surface to
offer strong pavement.

Conclusion

Flexible pavement is commonly use throughout the world due to the good performance and
serviceability. The pavement has a design for 15 years and a proper maintenance would extend
the life span which would implied a sustainability. A proper mix during the initial phase of
construction would be give a good impact to the finished product. Regular inspection and
maintenance would give benefits to the pavement. The identification of possible defects on

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pavement have been conducted then the cause and appropriate treatment also can be determined
which will make the maintenance work more efficient. The defects on the existing road must
be carefully analyzed and understood in order to restore the road condition and provide a
comfort and smooth experience while using the road. the defects happened must be repaired
immediately to make sure the defects widen to a bigger problem.

References

1. Zumrawi, Magdi. (2015). Survey and Evaluation of flexible Pavement Failures.

International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR). 4. 1602-1607. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271014925_Survey_and_Evaluation_of_fle
xible_Pavement_Failures
2. Sarsam, Saad. (2016). Pavement Maintenance Management System: A Review. Trends
in Transport Engineering and Applications. 3. 19-30. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307976894_Pavement_Maintenance_Manag
ement_System_A_Review
3. Rashid, Er. Zulufqar Bin & Gupta, Rakesh. (2017). STUDY OF DEFECTS IN
FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT AND ITS MAINTENANCE. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329642260_STUDY_OF_DEFECTS_IN_F
LEXIBLE_PAVEMENT_AND_ITS_MAINTENANCE
4. Flamarz, Shamil. (2017). Flexible Pavement Evaluation: A Case Study. Kurdistan
Journal of Applied Research. 2. 10.24017/science.2017.3.33. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322117528_Flexible_Pavement_Evaluation
_A_Case_Study
5. Awari, Mahesh babu. (2016). FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS DETERIORATION AND
SOLUTIONS. VSRD International Journal of Mechanical, Civil, Automobile &
Production Engineering. VI. 271. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316284882_FLEXIBLE_PAVEMENTS_D
ETERIORATION_AND_SOLUTIONS

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