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14-Lecture 13
14-Lecture 13
14-Lecture 13
Flexible Pavement
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Flexible Pavement
Flexible Pavement
The Base
• The base is a layer (or layers) of very high stability and
density
• Its principal purpose is to distribute or "spread" the
stresses created by wheel loads acting on the wearing
surface so that the stresses transmitted to the subgrade
will not be sufficiently great to result in excessive
deformation or displacement of that foundation layer.
• Locally available materials are extensively used for base
construction, and materials preferred for this type of
construction vary widely in different sections of the
country.
• Example: gravel or crushed rock, granular material treated
with asphalt, cement.
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Flexible Pavement
The Subbase
• The use of the subbase is optional (not always used)
• Placed directly over the subgrade to support a base
course
• Used when the subgrade is very weak or when frost action
is severe
• Also used for economical reasons, in locations where
suitable subbase materials are cheaper than base
materials of higher quality.
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Flexible Pavement
The Subgrade
• the foundation layer, the structure that must eventually
support all the loads that come onto the pavement.
• In some cases this layer will simply be the natural earth
surface. In other and more usual instances it will be
compacted soil existing in a cut section.
• The combined thickness of subbase (if used), base, and
wearing surface must be great enough to reduce the
stresses occurring in the subgrade to values that are not
sufficiently great to cause excessive distortion or
displacement of the subgrade soil layer
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Traffic loading
Climate or environment
Material characteristics
Other elements (cost, construction,
maintenance)
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Traffic Loading
Protection of the subgrade from the loading imposed by
traffic is one of the primary functions of a pavement
structure
The designer must provide a pavement that can withstand a
large number of repeated applications of variable
magnitude loadings
Primary loading factors:
• Magnitude of axle (and wheel) loads (controlled by legal load limits)
• Volume and composition of axle loads
• Tire pressure and contact area
The total estimated magnitude and occurrence of the
various traffic loadings are converted to the total number of
passes of the equivalent standard axle loading, usually the
equivalent 80-kN single axle load (ESAL)
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Climate or Environment
Two important Factors: Temperature and Moisture
Temperature (magnitude of temperature and its
fluctuations)
• high temperatures cause asphaltic concrete to lose stability
• at low temperatures asphaltic concrete becomes very hard
and stiff
• Low temperature and temperature fluctuations are also
associated with frost heave and freeze-thaw damage
Moisture
• Volume changes, less strength with higher moisture
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Resilient Modulus
vehicles
% trucks
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