UNIT – 1

INTRODUCTION 
SYLLABUS
Desirable characteristics of pavement, types and components, Difference between
Highway pavement and Air field pavement–Design strategies of variables–Functions of
sub-grade, sub base course–surface course–comparison between Rigid and flexible
pavement. (6 Hours)
What are the desirable properties or characteristics or requirements of pavements?
(December 2012)
Ans. The ideal pavement should meet the following requirements:
(i) The pavement should be structurally sound to withstand all types of stresses.
(ii) It should provide a reasonably hard surface so that upgrading action of wheels does
not damage the surface.
(iii) Adequate roughness and coefficient of friction to prevent skidding of vehicles.
(iv) It should have sufficient thickness to distributed the loads and stresses to a safe value
on the sub grade soil.
(v) It should be dust proof.
(vi) It riding quality should be good and its should be smooth enough to provide comfort
to road user at speeds.
(vii) Produce least noise from moving vehicles.
(viii) Pavement should have long design life and maintenance cost should be less.
(ix) 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.
What are the types and components of pavement? (Dec–2010, 2012)
Ans. Based on the structural behavior, pavements are generally classified into 4 categories:
(i) Flexible pavements (ii) Rigid pavements
(iii) Semi-rigid pavements (iv) Composite pavements
(i) Flexible pavements:-
• Flexible pavements are those which possess very low or negligible flexural strength.
• A flexible pavement consists of 3 layers of wearing surface built over a base course and
sub-base course and they rest upon the compacted sub-grade.
• If lower layers of flexible pavement gets undulated top wearing surface also gets deflected.
• A flexible pavement transmit the vertical stresses or compressive stresses to the lower
layers by grain to grain contact through the point of contact in the granular structure.
• A well compacted granular structure consist of the strong graded aggregates interlocked
with or without can transfer area of the sub grade.
• Bituminous concrete is one of the best flexible pavement layer materials.
 The vertical compressive stress due to the wheel load is maximum directly under the load
and is equal to the contact pressure under the wheel.
 So pavement has an ability of transferring these stresses on a wide area of the sub-grade by the
truncated cone shape.
 Hence stresses decrease at the lower layers.
 Therefore be taken in designing the layer system concept. full advantage of stress distribution
transfer should
• The flexible pavement is constructed in number of layers and the top layer should be the
strongest to withstand the highest compressive stresses and shear stresses offered by the
wheel load and its impact effect.
• The lower layers have to take up only the lesser magnitude of stresses and there is no
direct wear of wheel load, therefore the lower quality materials with lower cost can be
used in lower layers.
• Flexible pavements are designed by the Empherical and semi-empherical methods.
• Life of the flexible pavement ranges from 5 to 15 years and always require frequent
maintenance. After every 5 years or 10 years, laying of overlay is always required.
• This pavement is found to be uneconomical in the long run. eg; Bituminous
pavement.
(ii) Rigid pavement:-
• Rigid pavement are made up of cement concrete, RCC or PSC and may or may not
have base course between the pavement and sub-grade.
• The essential difference between the 2 types of pavements is the manner in which
they distribute the load over the sub-grade.
• Because of high modulus of elasticity, tests to distribute the load over a relatively on
wide area of the soil.
• Stress transfer is by the slab itself. Stresses are not transferred by the grain to grain
contact as in the case of flexible pavements.
• Stress transformation to the lower layers takes place by the bending action of slab.
• Plain cement concrete can take up about 40kg/cm² concrete flexural stress. Hence,
wheel loads are transmitted to the lower layers by the slab.
 The main point of difference between the flexible pavement and rigid pavement is
the structural point of view is the maximum flexural stress in the slab due to the
wheel load and flexible pavement is the maximum compressive stress or
distribution of compressive stresses.
 Because of slab action in rigid pavement.
 Maximum tensile stress developed due to the wheel loads and temperature variations.
 However the rigid pavement cannot deform to the shape of sub grade.
 A cement the rigid pavement cannot deform to the shape of sub grade soil if soil is of
gravely sandy in nature.
 Otherwise it must be followed by the suitable sub-base or base course.
 However rigid component cannot be laid directly over the sub grade soil if soil is of
find clay or expanding in nature.
 Otherwise this may create other problems like mud pumping or frost heaving.
• In the design, pavement is assured as an elastic plate resting over an elastic
foundation.
• Life of rigid pavement is 50-60 years.
• When once it is constructed, it does not recall for any maintenance of joints.
• Thus pavement is highly recommended in any road when compared with flexible
pavement. Eg: Cement concrete pavement.
(iii) Semi-rigid pavement:-
• When bonded materials like the Pozzolona concrete, lean cement concrete or soil-cement are used in the base
course or sub-base course layer, the pavement has considerably higher flexural strength than the common flexible
pavement.
• There bonded materials do not possess as much flexural strength as the cement concrete roads.
• They behave intermediate in the structural action between the flexible and rigid pavement and is known as semi-
rigid pavement.
• There pavements possess low resistance to impact and abrasion and they are usually provided with flexible pavement
surface course. E.g. Soil stabilized roads.
(iv) Composite pavement:-
• A composite pavement is one which comprises of multiple, structurally significant layers of different
heterogeneous composition. E.g. combination of rigid and flexible pavement.

COMPONENTS OF PAVEMENTS AND FUNCTION

Sub-grade:
• The finished or compacted surface of earthwork on which a road pavement rests is called sub-grade or formation.
• The sub grade of a road pavement may be provided in embankment or in cutting or comes at existing ground level
depending upon the topography and finished formation level.
• Sub grade is compacted to its optimum density and moisture conditions, finished with proper camber and
gradient.
• The thickness and type of pavement structure depends upon the supporting power of the sub grade because entire
load of traffic and that of pavement is ultimately taken up by the sub-grade.
Function:
• To bear ultimately the entire load of pavement including the load of traffic transmitted through the pavement.
• To provide an adequate and uniform support to the road pavement.
Sub-base course:
• A layer of granular material provided in between the sub-grade and the base course in a road
pavement is called sub base course.
• It is provided as an additional layer when sub grade is of quality.
• It consists of a layer of cheaper material like burnt clinker, natural gravel or slag.
Functions:
• To transmit the compressive stress on a wide area of sub-grade soil.
• To improve the bearing capacity of sub-grade.
• To improve drainage and to prevent the action of capillary rise of sub-soil water.
• To eliminate the frost heave in frost affected areas.

Base-course:
• A layer of boulders or bricks [in single layer or double layer] provided over the sub-base course or
immediately over the sub-grade in the absence of sub-base in a road pavement is called a base-
course.
 This course is considered as the most important and a major component of road pavement
structure because this course can bear the impact of traffic wheel loads as transferred through the
wearing course.
 It consists of stable material like boulders, gravel, one or two layers of well burnt bricks. In case
of rocky sub-grade this layer is not provided.

Functions:
• To withstand the high intensity compressive stresses or flexural stresses due to wheel load and also
to withstand high shearing stresses imposed upon it due to the impact effect of traffic on wearing
course.
• To act as the foundation for the road pavement and to transfer the wheel loads coming over the
pavement surface safely to the sub-base course and sub-grade lying underneath.
Wearing course:
• The top-most layer of the road pavement directly exposed to traffic is called
wearing course or surfacing.
• It may consist of one or more number of layers in case of flexible pavements.
• A good wearing course should be impervious and weather resisting.
• It should be able to resist abrasive action of the traffic.
Function:
• To distribute the traffic load safely to the base course.
• To act as an impervious layer so that the surface water could not find its access to
base course.
• To prevent dust nuisance
• To withstand abrasive effect of traffic.
• To provide smooth riding surface.
Write difference between flexible pavement and rigid pavement. (Dec 2010)
Flexible Pavement Rigid Pavement
(a) Stress transformation to the layers takes place by (a) Stress transformation takes place by the
grain to grain contact through the surface of granular bending action of the slab.
structure.

(b) Maximum critical stress is the minimum (b) Critical stress is the maximum flexural
compressive stress due to the wheel load and number stress due to design wheel load and temperature
of repetitions. effect. Also tensile stresses are developed.

(c) Pavement possesses negligible flexural strength. (c) Possess maximum rigidity and high young’s
modulus.
(d) Design depends on the wheel load and also on the (d) Design depends on wheel load, flexural
number of repetitions of wheel load. strength of concrete.

(e) Life of pavement is 5-15 years. (e) Life ranges from 30-60 years.
(f) Always calls for maintenance works. (f) No maintenance required except at joints.

(g) Not economical in long run. (g) Economical in long run.

(h) Initial cost is low.
(i) Joints not required.
(j) Moderate skill and less
supervision is needed
(k) Repair work is easy.
(l) It is easy to lay, locate or repair underground pipes
below the pavement.
(h) Initial cost is high.
(i) Essentially required.
(j) High skill and more supervision is needed.
(k) Repair work is difficult.
(l) It is difficult to lay, locate or repair under
ground pipes below the pavement.
Write difference between highway pavement and airport pavement.
Highway Pavement Airport Pavement
(a) Width of pavement depends upon number (a) Width of pavement depends upon on
of lanes and number of lanes depend upon the class of airport, type of area in operations
traffic intensity. Width of 2-lane highway is and standard clearance values width of
7m. airport pavement ranges from 10 to 60 m.
(b) Weight of truck is less than of an (b) Gross weight of aero plane ranges
aeroplane [ Around 20 tones for dual tandom between 80 to 250 tones.
wheels].
(c) Design wheel load is about 5.1 tonnes. (c) Design wheel load is around 50 tones.
(d) Tyre proof pressure is about 4 to 7 kg/cm²
(d) Tyre proof pressure is about 25 to 30
kg/cm²
(e) Normally highway pavement is not (e) Airport pavement are subjected to
subjected to impact effect. different tyres of impacts during landing
and takeoff.
(f) Traffic load on highway pavement is (f) Traffic load is concentrated at the
concentrated at edges of pavement. centre of pavement.
(g) Distress is development at the edges. (g) More distress occurs at centre of
pavement.
(h) Number of repetitions of wheel loads are (h) Number of repetitions of wheel loads
more. are less.
(i) Both flat and steep gradient is present. (i) Only flatter gradient.
(j) Conventional drainage system is adopted. (j) Special drainage system is adopted.
 Explain briefly the basic design differences between an airport and a highway
pavement. Or Explain design strategies of pavement (10 Marks)
The basic design difference between an airport and a highway pavement are:
 Magnitude of applied load, Tire pressure, Geometric section of the pavement, Number
of repetition of load applied on the pavement during the design life.
 The total weight aircraft is greater than that of a truck.
 The design load for a highway pavement is 4100kgs whereas the design wheel load on
an airport pavement is 100 tones.
 The tire pressure for any conventional truck is about 4.2 to 6.3kg/cm² whereas the tire
pressure for an aircraft would vary from 17 to 24kg/cm².
 The numbers of repetition of loads is greater on highways than on airports.
 On a road, the expected repetition may be 100-2000 commercial vehicles per day but on
airports only 20,000 to 40,000 coverage's may be considered for the life of the pavement.

 For a given wheel load and a given type pressure, highway pavements should be thicker
than airport or airfield pavements, as the loads are applied closer to the pavement edge.
 Regarding the geometry of the pavement, lateral placement of traffic on roads is such
that nearly all truck traffic travel within 1.0m of the edge of the pavement whereas the
pattern of wheel load application varies across the width of a runway and is concentrated
in the central portion.
 In a highway pavement, the section thickness is uniform throughout whereas in airport
pavement, the traffic follows a designated line along the critical areas such as a aprons,
taxiways and runway ends need to be built of thicker cross sections than the central
portion of a runway.