Case Study: Ten Year Field Performance Evaluation

of Flexible Base Asphalt Pavement Design in

Heavy Load Condition
Guoping Qian 1; Changhao Hu 2; Huanan Yu, M.ASCE 3; and Xiangbing Gong 4

Abstract: This research aims to evaluate the performance of flexible base asphalt pavement compared with traditional semirigid base asphalt
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pavement in practical application in central China under heavy load conditions. Four different flexible base structures were constructed in the
field, and the material design and performance test of flexible base asphalt pavement were carried out. The experimental section was built on a
highway in Henan Province with semirigid base asphalt pavement in the main-line, and the performance was evaluated by follow-up tracking
and observation. Through 10 years (2009–2018) of field performance observations, a total of five indexes of pavement performance
[International Roughness Index (IRI), Rutting Depth Index (RDI), Skid Resistance Index (SRI), Pavement Structural Strength Index (PSSI),
and Pavement Condition Index (PCI)] were collected. The results show that the IRI was not sensitive to the base structure but the PSSI and
PCI were greatly impacted by the strength of the base structure; the result found that proper designed flexible base asphalt pavement using
AH-30 asphalt with four different structural types had better or comparable performance over traditional used semirigid base asphalt pave-
ment in terms of temperature stability, crack reduction, and fatigue resistance under the heavy loaded conditions. This research suggested
designing a layer of stabilized macadam or ATB at the base to improve the overall strength and performance of the structure. DOI: 10.1061/
(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0003268. © 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Asphalt pavement; Flexible base; Semirigid base; Pavement structure design; Long-term performance.

Introduction
Background
Over the years, the design philosophy of China’s asphalt pavement
has been to construct with a strong base, thin surface, and stabilized
foundation; therefore, semirigid base asphalt pavement is used
predominantly in China’s highway construction projects. By the
end of 2018, the total mileage of China’s highway has reached
4,846,500 km and more than 90% of them are semirigid base pave-
ment (Jing et al. 2020). A semirigid pavement is usually a pavement
structure having a concrete cement stabilized layer as a base layer
under the asphalt concrete layer. Semirigid base has the advantages
of high strength, high stability, and low construction cost. However,
1
Professor, National Engineering Laboratory for Highway Maintenance
Technology, School of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Changsha
Univ. of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, China. Email:
guopingqian@sina.com
2
Master Degree Student, School of Traffic and Transportation Engineer-
ing, Changsha Univ. of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, China.
Email: 380880671@qq.com
3
Professor, National Engineering Laboratory for Highway Maintenance
Technology, School of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Changsha
Univ. of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, China (corresponding
author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9491-6383. Email: huanan
.yu@csust.edu.cn
4
Assistant Professor, National Engineering Laboratory for Highway
Maintenance Technology, School of Traffic and Transportation Engineer-
ing, Changsha Univ. of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, China.
Email: xbgong@csust.edu.cn
Note. This manuscript was submitted on July 16, 2019; approved on
January 13, 2020; published online on April 29, 2020. Discussion period
open until September 29, 2020; separate discussions must be submitted for
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Materials in Civil
Engineering, © ASCE, ISSN 0899-1561.
there are huge concerns about the problem of the reflection crack-
ing resulting from temperature and dry shrinkage cracking occur-
ring on the base (Aimin and Liqun 2008; Yu et al. 2020b).
Compared with a semirigid base, a flexible base normally includes
asphalt stabilized macadam, which is a layer of mixture of crushed
aggregate and cutback or emulsified asphalt, or a layer of graded
crushed stone, gravel, or coarse sand. The flexible base has the ad-
vantages of less temperature stress and better interlayer bonding,
and it is more consistent on interlayer modulus changes (Ziari
and Khabiri 2007; Yu et al. 2020a).
Because of the high mileage of semirigid base pavement in
China and the widely used flexible base asphalt pavement across
the world, researchers and engineers are interested to evaluate how
the semirigid base pavement performs and how it compares with
flexible base pavement under the same loading, especially the heavy
loading condition.
Many researches have been conducted to evaluate the perfor-
mance of semirigid and flexible base pavement through different
methods. For example, Peng and He (2009) evaluated the structural
characteristics and mechanical behaviors of cement-stabilized soil
bases using the three-dimensional (3D) elastic-plastic finite-
element method (FEM) method. Lin et al. (2006) evaluated the
impact of different types of transverse cracks on the structure per-
formance of pavement through 3-D FEM. Alkaissi (2020) studied
the effect of high temperature on rutting damage of flexible pave-
ment by Abaqus version 6.12.1. Ghosh et al. (2013) studied the
influence of temperature, vehicle speed, and aging on the dynamic
modulus of the asphalt mixture and an Indian Roads Congress
pavement cross section was analyzed using AASHTO MEPDG de-
sign software.
Some others have tried to evaluate the performance mechanism
of semirigid base pavement. Wang et al. (2018) evaluated the crack-
ing development mechanism in a semirigid base and found that the
crack path development is affected by the initial crack path and

© ASCE 04020187-1 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2020, 32(7): 04020187

 length. It was found that the shrinkage cracks in semirigid base
propagate upward to the asphalt surface and cause of reflective
crack. Fallah and Khodaii (2015) studied the effect of tensile
strength, coating amount, and coating type of geogrids on reducing
reflection cracks in the flexible base pavement, and the results show
that the location of the crack and the covering modulus have the
greatest impaction on reducing the reflective cracks.
Besides, many scholars have conducted laboratory experiments
on the material composition and performance of the semirigid base
pavement (Qian et al. 2019; Yu et al. 2019a, b). Wang et al. (2017)
evaluated the dynamic compressive resilient modulus and frost re-
sistance of semirigid base materials and found that the dynamic
compressive resilient modulus increased and the frost resistance im-
proved with the increase of cement content and curing time. Gao
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(2018) evaluated the cause of reflective cracking in semirigid base
asphalt pavement, and the result shows that the position of the crack
that emerged has a different effects on different types of cracks.
To evaluate the different base course on the performance of
asphalt mixture pavement, Su et al. (2017) studied the pavement
performances with unbound aggregate base layer, asphalt treated
base layer, cement treated base layer, permeable base layer, and
the recycled pavement base layer. Luo et al. (2018) developed a
reliability-based mechanistic-empirical pavement design procedure
to address uncertain material properties. Wang et al. (2016) com-
pared the shakedown design approach and the analytical design
approach in the UK for flexible road pavements, and found that
if the design temperature is relatively higher than 30°C in the
shakedown design, the designed asphalt layer will require thicker
asphalt, which is safer than the analytical approach, and such de-
sign will be able to withstand long-term traffic loading without
rutting failure.
Also, many researchers have conducted in-service observations
on the compare of flexible and semirigid base pavement. Merrill et al.
(2006) observed the behavior of fully-flexible and semirigid pave-
ments in a number of European countries, and observed the rutting,
cracking, deflections; the overall performance is presented from the
Netherlands, Hungary and the UK, and the result confirmed that cer-
tain pavements do not deteriorate structurally and hence can have
unexpectedly long lives. Vaitkus et al. (2012) evaluated the bearing
capacity and surface characteristics of experimental pavement struc-
tures after 5 years of their service (2007–2012), which contains 27
different pavement structures with the same class of pavement struc-
ture but the different type and composition of materials.
As described in the preceding paragraph, many scholars have car-
ried out laboratory experiments on material composition, structural
design, temperature, climate, and other conditions of semirigid and
flexible base asphalt pavement. However, the comparison between
the flexible base and semirigid base of long-term field practical ap-
plication is relatively few (Benedetto et al. 2011; García et al. 2012;
Dhakal et al. 2016; Pereira and Pais 2017). Moreover, the direct field
observation and comparison of heavy load and heavy traffic are even
fewer. Therefore, there is a need to provide a long term field perfor-
mance monitoring and observation for the flexible and semirigid
pavement structure.
Objectives and Scope
The objective of this study was to evaluate the field pavement per-
formance of flexible base pavement in typical heavy load traffic
conditions in central China. The direct field performance was
observed and compared between flexible base asphalt pavement
and semirigid base asphalt pavement with a 10-year (2009–2018)
range. This study provided a direct field application experience on
flexible base design and performance evaluation.
© ASCE 04020187-2
J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2020, 32(7): 04020187
Mixture Design and Laboratory Evaluation
Project Condition
This project was located in Henan province, Central China. Henan
province belongs to a warm temperate-subtropical zone and humid
semihumid monsoon climate, which represents the characteristic
of a few rain and snows in winter and abundant heat and rain in
summer. The annual average temperature is generally between
12°C and 16°C, and the average annual rainfall varies between
500 and 900 mm.
The traffic survey indicated that the traffic condition in the ex-
perimental section has the following characteristics:
1. The typical traffic in the experimental section was located close
to the mining area, which is characterized by a heavy load; the
proportion of heavy-truck vehicles in the total traffic volume
was above 30%.
2. Also, based on the traffic survey, over 50% of the heavy-truck
vehicles were mining trucks, which were usually 80% − 300%
more than the standard truck carrying capacity.
3. The traffic survey indicated that the tire pressure of trucks gen-
erally exceeds 0.7 MPa. For tires with axle load over 10 t, the
tire pressure is generally in the range of 0.7–1.1 MPa. Moreover,
the tire pressure increases with the increase of axle load. In
this project, the standard axle load is still taken as 100 kN,
and the contact pressure is 0.7 MPa; for the axle load of heavy-
truck vehicle (greater than 100 kN), the axle load is taken as
0.7–1.1 MPa.
Flexible Base Asphalt Mixture Design
Because the section of this highway project was heavily loaded,
asphalt binder of AH-30 was selected for this project. The conven-
tional test results indicated that the asphalt binder satisfied the
Specifications for Design of Highway Asphalt Pavement of China
[D50 (Chinese Standards 2006)]. The basic properties of the se-
lected binder were shown in Table 1.
The flexible base aggregate used in this research was limestone,
and two different dense graded asphalt mixtures were designed,
which were named as ATB-30 and ATB-40 separately. The grada-
tion curve of both mixtures was shown in Fig. 1, and the volumetric
properties of the asphalt mixture in the base layer were shown in
Table 2.
To investigate the material performance of flexible base and pro-
vide a material database for field observation, this research evalu-
ated the impact of asphalt mixture material on the test performance
of high temperature, low temperature, fatigue, and water stability of
ATB-30 (#30) and ATB-40 (#30) asphalt mixture.
High Temperature Performance Test
Dynamic Stability Test
The dynamic stability test was conducted using an automatic rut-
ting machine at the rutting plates with the size of 300 × 300 ×
50 mm; the test loading was 700 N; the contact pressure between
Table 1. AH-30 asphalt binder properties
Items Requirement Test result
Penetration ð25°C; 100 g; 5 sÞ=0.1 mm 20 − 40 26
Penetration index (PI) −1.5 to þ 1.0 −0.91
Ductility ð5 cm=min; 15°CÞ=cm Measured 7
Soft point (°C) ≥55 60
J. Mater. Civ. Eng.
 Max. Density Line ATB30 ATB40
100
90
80
70

Percent passing
60
50
40
30
20
10
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0
0.075 0.3 0.6 1.18 2.36 4.75 9.5 13.2 16 19 26.5 31.5 37.5 54
0.15
Sieve size (mm)

Fig. 1. Gradation curves of ATB-30 and ATB-40.

Table 2. Asphalt mixture design volumetric properties ATB-30-30# ATB-40-30#

Gradation Asphalt content (%) VV (%) VFA (%) VMA (%) 7000

ATB30 3.4 4.4 61.1 11.3 6000

ATB40 3.3 4.2 62.7 11.0
5000
Note: VV = air voids; VFA = voids filled with asphalt; and VMA = voids in
(

mineral aggregate.
Strain (10-6

4000

3000

Table 3. Asphalt mixture dynamic stability test result 2000

Asphalt Dynamic Test Tire 1000

mixture stability temperature (°C) pressure (MPa)
0
ATB-30-30# 7,035 60 0.7 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
ATB-40-30# 9,898 60 0.7 Time (S)

Fig. 2. Creep curve of test temperature at 40°C.

testing wheel and the specimen at 60°C was 0.7  0.05 MPa; and
the test temperature was 60°C  0.5°C. In order to make sure the
test specimens had a uniform temperature field, the specimens were ATB-30-30# ATB-40-30#
put in a temperature chamber of 60°C  0.5°C for 6 h. The dynamic 10000
stability test results were shown in Table 3. The result indicated that 9000
both ATB-30 and ATB-40 shown good rutting resistance perfor- 8000
mance, and the dynamic stability value of both mixtures exceeded 7000
Strain (10-6)

the standard requirement of 2,800. 6000

5000
Uniaxial Creep Test
4000
The MTS was used for the uniaxial creep test, and the size of the
3000
specimen was 150 mm in diameter and 100 mm in height. The
2000
loading stress was 0.2 MPa, and the tests were conducted at two
1000
temperatures of 40°C (104°F) and 50°C (122°F) separately. The
time-strain relationship of both temperatures was shown in Figs. 2 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
and 3. Time (s)
As can be seen from the creep test, the slope of the creep curve
decreased and then gradually stabilized with the extension of load- Fig. 3. Creep curve of test temperature at 50°C.
ing time, which indicated that the deformation resistance of asphalt
mixture increases. The result was consistent with the general field
observations that rutting mostly occurs in the early stage of pave-
ment, and the increasing rate of rutting depth tends to become As can be seen, ATB-30 asphalt mixture shows better perfor-
smaller in the later stage of field application. mance than ATB-40, which indicated that the gradation shape
From the creep test results, the creep stiffness modulus of demonstrated a big impact on the creep stiffness of asphalt
the two asphalt mixtures used in the study was quite different. mixture.

© ASCE 04020187-3 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2020, 32(7): 04020187

 ATB-30 (30#) ATB-40 (30#)
8000
Table 5. Test result freeze-thaw split test

5 Mixture Tensile strength Tensile strength

7500 type after freeze-thaw without freeze-thaw TSR (%)
-5
5 ATB30 1.528 1.864 82.0
-15 ATB40 1.626 2.166 75.1
Strain (10-6)

7000
Note: TSR = Tensile Strength Ratio.
6500
-5

-15 Freeze-Thaw Split Test

6000
In order to evaluate the water stability of asphalt mixtures after
freeze-thaw cycles in winter and summer, the freeze-thaw splitting
5500
2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5
test was supplemented for evaluation. The test specimens were
Stress (MPa) compacted with the Marshall method. The test result was shown
in Table 5. It can be seen that the Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR)
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Fig. 4. Ultimate tensile test result of asphalt mixtures.
Low Temperature Performance
In order to analyze the cracking resistance performance of asphalt
mixtures at low temperatures, ultimate tensile tests were carried out
on the designed asphalt mixtures at various temperatures. The test
equipment was also the MTS-810 test system. The size of the speci-
men is 100 × 100 × 300 mm in beam shape, and ultimate tensile
tests were conducted at temperatures of −15°C, −5°C, and 5°C.
The ultimate tensile failure test result of the designed asphalt mix-
ture was shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen from the result that ATB-40
shows better low temperature performance than ATB-30. The rea-
son for this could be that because both ATB-40 and ATB-30 are
dense-graded mixture and the aggregate size of ATB-40 is larger
than that of ATB-30, the ATB-40 demonstrated better low temper-
ature performance than ATB-30.
Water Stability Performance
To better evaluate the water stability of the asphalt mixture, both an
immersion Marshall test and freeze-thaw split test were used in
this study.
of both mixtures was above 75%, which indicated that the water
stability of the designed asphalt mixture after the freeze-thaw cycle
satisfied the standard requirement.
Fatigue Performance
Considering the commonly used compaction method in China, the
fatigue test specimens were compacted with wheel roller compac-
tion method and then cut into beam type specimen. The size of
fatigue test specimens was 100 × 100 × 300 mm in beam shape;
the loading method was using stress control mode at a stress ratio
of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5. Fatigue tests were conducted using
MTS-810 material testing system, the test temperature was at
15°C  1°C and the loading frequency was 10 Hz. The results of
ATB-30 (30#) and ATB-40 (30#) were shown in Figs. 5 and 6:
For the asphalt mixture under the same conditions, the average
fatigue life of the asphalt mixture is relatively close under the high
stress of 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5. Under low stress conditions of 0.1 and
0.2, the ATB-30 (30#) mixture showed a higher fatigue life than the
other three asphalt mixtures, which was mainly caused by the com-
bined action of the aggregate gradation of the mixture and the as-
phalt bonding. Generally speaking, the fatigue performance of
ATB-30 was better than ATB-40 compared to the two gradations,
especially in the low stress state.

Immersion Marshall Test

Asphalt Pavement Structure Design and
The immersion Marshall tests were conducted following the Tech-
Construction
nical Specification for Construction of Highway Asphalt Pavement
[F40 (Chinese Standards 2004)]. Two groups of Marshall speci-
mens were immersed into 60°C hot water for 30 min and 48 h Structure Design
separately; the stability was measured separately and the residual The AASHTO MEPDG V1.0 (NCHRP 2007) design method was
stability was calculated below: adopted for pavement structure design in this project, and the
MS0 ¼ MS1 =MS × 100% ð1Þ
ATB-30 (30#) ATB-40 (30#)
where MS0 = residual stability (%); MS1 = stability after immersion 6
of 48 h (kN); and MS = stability after immersion of 30 min (kN). 5.5
Fatigue Life (Logarithmic)

The test results were below in Table 4.

5
Both asphalt mixtures ATB-30 and ATB-40 satisfied the re-
quirement of specification in which the residual stability of asphalt 4.5
mixture immersed in water should not be less than 80%. 4
3.5

Table 4. Test result of immersion Marshall test 3

48 h of immersion 30 min of immersion 2.5

Residual
Mixture Stability Flow value Stability Flow value stability 2
0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
type (kN) (mm) (kN) (mm) (%)
Stress Ratio
ATB30 26.77 4.123 28.64 3.520 93
ATB40 24.79 4.108 27.48 4.375 90 Fig. 5. Comparison of fatigue life without bending test.

© ASCE 04020187-4 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2020, 32(7): 04020187

 design was also checked to satisfy Shell mechanical-experiential
design method. A total of five different design schematics were
constructed in the field, and the structure of each design was shown
in Fig. 7. As it can be seen from the design schematic, the surface
layers of all pavement structure are the same with 5 cm of AC-16C
and 6 cm of AC-20C. The base of plan A, B, C, and D was 18 cm of
ATB-30, and the subbase of each design was different as shown
below:
Plan A: 12 cm of macadam, 16 cm of cement stabilized mac-
adam, and 17 cm of low dosage of cement stabilized macadam.
Plan B: 18 cm of cement stabilized macadam, 17 cm of low
dosage of cement stabilized macadam, and 10 cm of nonscreening
macadam.
Plan C: 36 cm of ATB-40.
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calculation results were shown in Table 6. As can be seen from
the checking results, the fatigue life of plans A–D was greater than
the 42.7 million times required by the specification. The maximum
deflection of the road surface did not exceed the allowable value of
45 mm either, which indicates that the pavement structure designed
by AASHTO meets the design specification of China.
Pavement Performance Indicators
The flexible base pavement was constructed as a test section in the
main line of a highway project in Henan. The total length of the
testing section is 1,909 m, and the traffic condition is the same as
the semirigid base pavement in the main line. The field observation
was conducted once every year at the same section following the

Plan D: 30 cm of macadam and 30 cm of nonscreening
macadam.
The design of plan A was a mixed structure, in which graded
macadam was laid on a semirigid base course, and then large size
asphalt stabilized macadam was laid on graded macadam course.
Plan B was also a mixed structure of laying large-size asphalt-
stabilized macadam base on a semirigid cement-stabilized layer,
which is the most widely used flexible base pavement structure.
Those four flexible base designs were checked by the Shell
mechanical-empirical method, the check indexes included fatigue
failure and road surface maximum deflection, and the detailed
ATB-30 (30#)
6 International Roughness Index (IRI)
5.5
Fatigue Life (Logarithmic)
current China Highway Performance Assessment Standards JTG
H20-2007 (Chinese Standards 2007). Five indicators were used in
the standard for pavement performance evaluation, which included
the International Roughness Index (IRI), and can be calculated
through the Riding Quality Index (RQI), Pavement Structural
Strength Index (PSSI), Skidding Resistance Index (SRI), and
Rutting Depth Index (RDI). The performance of the pavement con-
dition index (PCI) mainly refers to the characteristics of surface
distresses such as cracking, the road surface damage, evenness,
rutting, roughness performance, and structural strength. The perfor-
mance qualification index (PQI) is a comprehensive index consisting
of the pavement condition index (PCI). The following performance
indexes were collected across 10 years (2009–2018) of field
observation.
ATB-40 (30#)
The IRI was established in 1986 by the World Bank and based on

5
earlier work performed for NCHRP (Kerali et al. 2000). IRI is cal-
culated from a measured longitudinal road profile by accumulating
4.5
4
3.5 Table 6. Shell mechanics-empirical checking calculation result
3 AC-20C layer Base layer
2.5
Structure Deflection tensile tension strain Fatigue life
plan (1/100 mm) strain (10−4 ) (10−4 ) of base (106)
2
0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 A 40 0.1971 0.5414 7.154 × 104
Stress Ratio B 38 0.1898 0.6147 4.305 × 104
C 30 0.2018 0.3123 6.462 × 105
Fig. 6. Comparison of fatigue life of the bending test. D 43 0.1868 0.8125 1.410 × 104

Fig. 7. Road structure design scheme.

© ASCE 04020187-5 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2020, 32(7): 04020187

 the output from a quarter-car model and dividing by the profile
length to yield a summary roughness index with units of slope.
Rutting Depth Index (RDI)
The RDI is a popular index used to evaluate the rutting performance
of asphalt pavement, which is directly calculated from the rutting
depth (RD) from the subsequent equations
RDI ¼ 100 − 2.0 · RD ðRD ≤ 20 mmÞ ð2Þ
RDI ¼ 60 − 4.0 · ðRD − 20Þ ð20 mm ≤ RD ≤ 35 mmÞ ð3Þ
RDI ¼ 0 ðRD ≥ 35 mmÞ ð4Þ
The value of RDI is between 0 and 100, and a larger number of
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RDI means a smaller value of RD, which indicated better perfor-
mance of rutting condition in the asphalt pavement service.
Skid Resistance Index (SRI)
The friction coefficient between the tire and the ground is an im-
portant index of measure of the skid resistance of the road surface.
The skid resistance is measured in the form of SRI, in which SRI is
calculated from the subsequent equations
100 − 35.0
SRI ¼ þ 35.0 ð5Þ
1 þ 28.6e−0.105SFC
where SFC = side-way force coefficient of asphalt pavement.
In order to evaluate the impact of structure type on the perfor-
mance of SRI, the concept of relative SRI (RSRI) is defined
RSRI ¼ SRIðtÞ=SRIðiÞ ð6Þ
where SRIðiÞ = initial SRI at the beginning of the evaluation
period. In this study, the SRIðiÞ equals the SRI at the year of 2008.
SRIðtÞ is the SRI at t year after the initial year.
Pavement Structure Strength Index (PSSI)
Generally, distresses develop slowly on pavements with better qual-
ity material and rational layer structure. Road sections with better
pavement structure have a long service time. Therefore, the pave-
ment structural capacity is considered to be another important
factor affecting the network level pavement maintenance decision-
making. Unlike PCI or RQI, the structural capacity of pavement
cannot be directly seen or perceived.
In order to quantify the pavement structural capacity, an index
that could represent the strength of the pavement structure needs to
be determined based on instrument detection. According to the
Chinese specification for highway performance assessment, the
highway asphalt pavement structure strength can be characterized
by the Pavement Structure Strength Index (PSSI). PSSI is an aver-
age value of relative deflections measured by the falling weight
deflectometer at multiple positions, which can be calculated by the
following equations:
100
PSSI ¼ ð7Þ
1 þ 15.71 · e−5.19·SSI
SSI ¼ lt =l0 ð8Þ
where SSI = Structure Strength Index; lt = designed pavement de-
flection in the actual use of t years, mm; and l0 = actually measured
pavement deflection under falling weight deflectometer (FWD) at
the center of the wheel position, mm.
Pavement Condition Index (PCI)
PCI is the pavement condition index, which is a direct indicator of
the physical performance of pavement damage conditions. The higher
© ASCE 04020187-6
J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2020, 32(7): 04020187
the PCI, the better the pavement condition. PCI is the surface per-
formance condition, which can be calculated by the following
equation
PCI ¼ 100 − 15DR0.412 ð9Þ
where DR = distress ratio of the pavement, or it can be calculated
as the ratio between the calculated area of all pavement distress
and the area of surveyed pavement. Based on the Technical
Specifications for Maintenance of Highway Asphalt Pavement
[JTJ-073.2 (Chinese Standards 2001)], pavement distresses can be
divided into 21 categories, which including rutting, blocking crack-
ing, transverse cracking, longitudinal cracking, potholes, etc.
Performance Evaluation
Across 10 years of performance observation and comparison with
the main line structure, the International Roughness Index (IRI),
Rutting Depth Index (RDI), Skid Resistance Index (SRI), Structural
Strength Index (SSI), and Pavement Condition Index (PCI) were
collected.
IRI Evaluation
Fig. 8 shows the comparison of IRI of four flexible base asphalt
pavement and the main line in the last 10 years. As described in
preceding sections, those five sections have the same surface
material and design, but the base structures are different. As shown
in the figure, the IRI results and trend did not show the obvious
difference between different base structures during 10 years of
heavy traffic, which indicates that the base structure type has little
influence on the IRI in field application. The result also found that
the four flexible base and the semirigid base structure showed good
IRI performance during the 10 years of the observation period.
RDI Evaluation
Fig. 9 shows the RDI index of 10 years observation for four differ-
ent structures and the main line. As can be seen from the figure,
plans A, B, and C of flexible base pavement show better rutting
performance than the semirigid base asphalt pavement during
10 years of field observation, and plan D and the main line were
similar.
Increasing the thickness of asphalt pavement can significantly
reduce the shear strain of pavement surface and flexible base. The
thickness of the semirigid base has a significant effect on the maxi-
mum shear strain of a flexible base, while the thickness of the
PlanA PlanB PlanC PlanD The main line
4
3.5
3
2.5
IRI
2
1.5
1
0.5
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Time(year)
Fig. 8. International roughness index test results.
J. Mater. Civ. Eng.
 PlanA PlanB PlanC PlanD The main line PlanA PlanB PlanC PlanD The main line
100 100
99
95 98
97
90 96

PSSI
95
RDI

85 94
93
80 92
91
75 90
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
70 Time (Year)
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Time (Year) Fig. 11. Pavement structure strength index text results.
Fig. 9. Rutting depth index test results.
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PlanA PlanB PlanC PlanD The main line

100
PlanA PlanB PlanC PlanD The main line
100% 98
98%
96
96%
Relative SRI (RSRI)

PCI
94% 94
Maintenance
92%
Maintenance
92
90%

88% 90
86%
88
84% 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Time(year)
Time (Year)

Fig. 12. Pavement condition index test results.

Fig. 10. Relative SRI observation results.

flexible base has little effect on the maximum shear strain of the
asphalt layer. Increasing the thickness of each structural layer is
beneficial to the rutting resistance performance of pavement, but
the increase of the thickness of semirigid base will cause the in-
crease of the shear strain in the middle and lower layers, which
could reduce the rutting resistance performance; this could be the
reason that the main line semirigid base pavement show a lower
number of RDI than the flexible base asphalt pavement.
SRI Evaluation
Fig. 10 shows the relative SRI during 10 years of observation. It can
be seen that the RSRI do not have much difference during the first
3 years of observation; plan D and the main line have similar skid
resistance during the 10 year of service, while plans A, B, and C
show better skid resistance.
PSSI Evaluation
PSSI is related to the bearing capacity of the road base, in which if
the bearing capacity of the base is poor and then transmitted to the
surface, the structural strength of the pavement will also be af-
fected. Fig. 11 shows the PSSI performance observation result; it
should be noted that because there was no visually observed struc-
ture damage for the tested road in the first few years, the PSSI were
only collected from the year 2011 and after. The result indicated
that the PSSI have little changes during the first several years; how-
ever, after around 5 years of field operation, the PSSI have shown a
big drop for the main line and the plan D. The result for the de-
crease of PSSI of the main line was the cracking in the semirigid
base, which caused the drop in strength of the overall structure, and
the dropping of plan D was because plan D used the graded and
nonscreening macadam, which have a lower strength and are more
likely to cause damage in the heavy loaded traffic condition.
PCI Evaluation
As shown in Fig. 12, plans A, B, and C show a comparable and
more consistent change of PCI, while plan D and the mail line show
comparable results. Through 10 years of observation, plans A, B,
and C effectively reduce the damage of the road surface, and the
PCI is better than plan D and the main structural scheme. The rea-
son is that plan D used graded macadam and unscreened macadam,
which has low strength and is more likely to cause damage under
repeated loading conditions, while the other plans have adopted
cement stabilized macadam or ATB, which has higher strength than
graded macadam. Thus the PSSI of other plans is higher than that of
plan D.
Results and Discussions
According to the analysis of the data, the collected performance
data of plans A, B, and C are close and show better performance
than plan D and the main line structure. From the perspective
of materials, because the main structure of cement stabilized mac-
adam or graded macadam is aggregate, and the strength is mainly
based on the interlocking between the crushed stones. The strength
of cement-stabilized macadam is higher than that of graded mac-
adam, and the strength of graded macadam is higher than that of
unscreened macadam. Because the flexible base asphalt pavement
damage generally starts at the surface layer and then extends

© ASCE 04020187-7 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2020, 32(7): 04020187

 downward, the damage belongs to the functional damage. The vis-
coelasticity of asphalt material makes it self-heal when tiny cracks
appear in the flexible base asphalt pavement. However, the damage
of the semirigid base asphalt pavement is mainly caused by reflec-
tion crack, which extends from the contraction crack of semirigid
base to the surface layer and subgrade, and finally develops into the
damage of the entire pavement structure. Therefore, after 10 years
of field heavy traffic, the road performance of the main line is sig-
nificantly different from that of plans A, B, and C.
Increasing the thickness of asphalt pavement can significantly
reduce the shear strain of the pavement surface and flexible base.
The thickness of the semirigid base has a significant effect on
the maximum shear strain of a flexible base, while the thickness
of the flexible base has little effect on the maximum shear strain
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of the asphalt layer. Increasing the thickness of each structural
layer is beneficial to the rutting resistance performance of pave-
ment, but the increase of the thickness of semirigid base will
cause the increase of the shear strain in the middle and lower
layers, which could reduce the rutting resistance performance;
this could be the reason that the main line semirigid base pave-
ment shown a lower number of RDI than the flexible base as-
phalt pavement.
The field observation result found that there is little difference in
the performance indexes in first previous years, because the graded
macadam and unscreened macadam of plan D have worse bearing
capacity compared with others, which resulted in lower field per-
formance than the other test sections. However, the total thickness
of plan D is thicker than other plans, which avoids the early failure
of this structure plan. In general, plan D shows worse but still ac-
cepted field performance with the main line structure.
In conclusion, after 10 years of heavy traffic use, the better de-
signed flexible base asphalt pavement of plans A, B, and C show
better performance than that of semirigid base asphalt pavement.
Comparing plans A, B, C, and D, it was suggested to design a layer
with stabilized macadam or ATB at the base to improve the overall
strength and performance of the structure.
Conclusions and Future Work
This research compared the field asphalt pavement performance of
four flexible base structures, and one typical thay used semirigid
base structure through 10-year observations. Five performance in-
dexes of IRI, RDI, SRI, SSI, and PCI were collected and evaluated.
The conclusions of this research are summarized below:
1. Based on the actual traffic and environmental condition, four
different structures designed by the AASHTO method for the
test road, the design was checked and evaluated by the Shell
mechanical-empirical method and the results indicated that
all designs meet the standard specification requirement.
2. The performance observations indicate that the base structure
type has little impact on the IRI in field application; however,
it was found that the base structure type has a big impact on the
PSSI and PCI performance of asphalt mixture.
3. Based on the field observation, the flexible base asphalt pave-
ment has shown comparable or better performance than semi-
rigid base asphalt pavement in heavy load traffic conditions in
central China, and for flexible base asphalt pavement, it is
suggested to design a layer with stabilized macadam or ATB at
the base to improve the overall strength and performance of
structure.
As the first stage of this study, the field performance indexes
were put forward in this paper. The future work should include
the analysis of the cracking propagation mechanism of the different
© ASCE 04020187-8
J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2020, 32(7): 04020187
structure and also the impact of base on the surface mechanical
performance of asphalt mixtures.
Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study ap-
pear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of
China (Grant No. 2018YFB1600100); the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51908072 and
51778071); the Huxiang High-Level Talent Gathering Project of
HUNAN Province (Grant No. 2019RS1048); and the Special
Funds for the Construction of Innovative Provinces in Hunan,
China (No. 2019SK2171).
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