Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Concrete Pavement Design

Indian Roads Congress Method

Dr. K. Sudhakar Reddy

Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
India
Email: ksreddy@civil.iitkgp.ernet.in
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

The IRC Guidelines

IRC: 58-2002
Guidelines for the Design of Plain Jointed Rigid
Pavements for Highways

Scope
Applicable for roads having a daily traffic volume
of more than 150 commercial vehicles
Not for low volume village roads
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Failures – Cracking in Concrete Pavement

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Mud Pumping in Concrete Pavement

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Blowup in Concrete Pavement

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Failures Addressed

Load induced Cracking

Due to heavy loads
Due to fatigue damage

Thermal Cracking
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Modeling Concrete Pavement
• IRC:58-2002 adopts Slab on Winkler foundation
model

Slab on Spring Foundation

• Foundation is represented by its spring constant

known as modulus of subgrade reaction (k)

• Solution based on Westergaard and Picket &

Ray’s works
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Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
Plate Load Test

Reaction frame

Hydraulic Jack
Stiff loading plate

Load is gradually increased and the deflection of

the foundation observed
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Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
Plate Load Test
Bearing Pressure, p

750mm plate
Correction for moisture
K=p/ Determined for 1.25mm

Settlement,
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Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
• In case of homogeneous foundation, k-value
obtained with 30cm dia plate can be converted to
get k-value for 75 cm plate using
k75 = 0.5 x k30
• The ideal period for testing is during or soon after
the monsoon (weakest condition)
• To adjust the k-value obtained at any time to
correspond to worst condition, CBR tests on sub-
grade soil samples compacted at field density and
field moisture content and tested before and after
the saturation must be conducted
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Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
“k-value” can be estimated form CBR value for
homogeneous soil sub-grades. IRC-58 recommends
Soaked 2 3 4 5 7 10 15 20 50 100
CBR value%
k-value 2.1 2.8 3.5 4.2 4.8 5.5 6.2 6.9 14.0 22.2
(kg/cm2/cm)
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Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
k-values over Granular/ Cement treated sub-bases
k-value of Effective k (kg/cm2/cm) Effective k (kg/cm2/cm) over
sub-grade over untreated granular cement treated sub-base of
kg/cm2/cm layer sub-base of thickness in cm
thickness in cm
15 22.5 30 10 15 20

2.8 3.9 4.4 5.3 7.6 10.8 14.1

5.6 6.3 7.5 8.8 12.7 17.3 22.5
8.4 9.2 10.2 11.9 …….. ……… ………
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Subgrade and subbase
Usually a separation membrane of 125 micron
polythene sheet is provided between sub-base and
pavement to reduce the inter-layer friction

To facilitate quick disposal of water that is likely to

enter sub-grade drainage layer should be provided
beneath the pavement throughout road width above
sub-grade
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Slab Concrete
Modulus of elasticity (E) - experimentally determined
value or 3.0 x 105 kg/cm2
Poisson’s ratio (µ) – 0.15
Coefficient of thermal expansion (α) varies with the type
of aggregate. For Design, α = 10 x 10-6 per °
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Slab Concrete
Fatigue Characteristics of concrete
Repeated application of flexural stresses by the traffic
loads causes Fatigue damage

Stress ratio (SR) = Flexural stress due to load

Flexural strength of concrete
For SR < 0.45, the concrete is expected to sustain
infinite number of repetitions
N = ((4.2577/(SR – 0.4325))3.268 when 0.45≤ SR ≤ 0.55
Log 10 N = 0.9718 – SR for SR > 0.55
0.0828
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IRC Guidelines – Design Traffic

• Estimation of the cumulative traffic (during design
period) and heaviest loads
• Assessment of traffic based on 7- day 24 hour
count
• Average annual growth rate of commercial
vehicles taken as 7.5 % (if accurate projections
cannot be made)
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IRC Guidelines – Design Period

• Normally 30 Years
• 20 Years when traffic intensity cannot be
predicted accurately for long periods, for low
volume roads
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IRC Guidelines – Design Traffic

Estimation of Cumulative Traffic
C = 365 x A {(1+r)n – 1}
r
C = Cumulative number of axles during the design
period
A = Initial number of axles/day in the year when
the road is operational
r = Annual rate of growth of commercial traffic
(expressed in decimals)
n = Design period in years
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IRC Guidelines – Design Traffic

Lateral Placement of wheel loads
• 25% of total two-way commercial traffic for 2-lane
2-way roads
• For 4-lane and multi-lane roads 25% of traffic in
predominant direction
• For new highway links where no traffic data is
available data from roads of similar classification
and importance can be used
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IRC Guidelines – Design Traffic

• Estimation of Cumulative Traffic is done for
different axle load groups
• It is necessary to have data on axle load
spectrum
• It is expected that the weights and number of
vehicles in each direction are equal. However, for
facilities like haul roads in mining area it may be
significantly different
• 98th percentile load is also identified (heaviest
load considered for design)
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Design – Critical Stress Condition

• Factors considered for Design of pavement
thickness
 Flexural stresses due to traffic loads
 Temperature differential between top and
bottom fibres of concrete slab
• The above two factors are assumed to be
additive under critical condition
• The effect of moisture variation will be opposite
to that of temperature changes and hence
ignored
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Design – Critical Stress Condition (Load)

• The loads applied by single as well as tandem
axles cause maximum flexural stresses when tyre
imprint touches the longitudinal edge
• When tyre imprints touch the transverse joints with
or without dowel bar, part of the load is transferred
to the other side of the slab by aggregate interlock
or dowel bar causing lower flexural stress both at
the corner as well as along the transverse joint
• If slab is cast panel by panel (with clear vertical
joints) Corner loading will be critical
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Design – Critical Stress Condition (Load)

Direction of Travel

Single Axle
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Design – Critical Stress Condition (Load)

Direction of Travel

1.31 m

Tandem Axle
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Design – Critical Stress Condition (Load)

• Tandem axles carrying twice the load carried by a
single axle will cause nearly 20% lesser flexural
stress (due to the superposition of the negative
bending moment of one wheel load over the
positive BM of the other wheel loads
• However, tandem and tridem axles may cause loss
of subgrade due to higher deflection. If the number
of such axles is significantly high, erosion failure
has to be considered in design
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Design – Load Considerations

• Legal axle load limits in India in tonnes:
Single axles – 10.2
Tandem axles – 19.0
Tridem axles – 24.0
• However, in actual practice many of the vehicles
carry much heavier loads on the axles and this
loading pattern has to be taken into consideration
for practical design purpose
• For this, axle load survey has to be conducted
(minimum Sample size of 10% in both directions
for a day) to get the axle load spectrum
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Design – Load Considerations

• Higher axle loads induce very high stresses in the
pavement and result in the consumption of
fatigue life of concrete

• Contribution of different axle load groups towards

fatigue damage must be determined

• 98th percentile axle load (heavy load) should also

be considered for damage caused due to
application of a single heavy load
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Design – Load Considerations

• Tyre pressure and shape of the contact area also
govern the load stresses
• Tyre pressure will be in the range of 0.7 – 1.0 MPa
(0.8 MPa is adopted for the design)
• LSF (Load Safety factor) takes into account
unpredicted heavy axle loads
Expressways, NH and other important roads where there
will be uninterrupted traffic flow and high volume of truck
traffic, LSF = 1.2
Roads of lesser importance having low proportion of
truck traffic, LSF = 1.1
Residential and other roads, LSF = 1.0
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Calculation of Wheel load stresses

IRC:58 recommends using IITRIGID computer
program developed at IIT, Kharagpur for
computation of wheel load stress in the edge region
Based on Westergaard analysis and Picket and
Ray’s work
Typical charts for estimation of edge stress (load)
are given as Appendix to IRC:58
For a given axle load, slab thickness and
foundation k-value edge stress due to axle load can
be estimated using the chart
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Typical Chart for Edge stress

Flexural stress (edge)

Axle load = 12 Tons

K= 6

K= 30

Slab Thickness
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Computation of Corner Stress

Westergaard’s equation modified by Kelly

Sc = 3P 1 – a √2 1.2

h2 l
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Design – Temperature Stresses

• Concrete Pavements undergo daily cyclic variation
of temperature differential within the slab thickness
(to hotter than bottom during day time)
• The slab tends to warp up (during day) or down
(during night)

T1 >T2 C T1 >T2
T
T2 T T2 C
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Design – Temperature Stresses

• Restraint (provided by self weight of slab and
foundation) to warping causes warping stresses
• Restraint offered by slab weight at any section is a
function of the weight of slab upto that section
• Corners will have very little warping stress (unless
dowel bars are provided)
• Restraint is maximum in the slab interior and
somewhat less in the edge region
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Temperature Differential within the slab

IRC:58-2002 recommends different temperature
differential values for different regions and
different slab thicknesses
For example for the region covering Bihar,
Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam and Eastern
Orissa (excluding hilly and coastal regions) the
recommended temperature differentials are
Slab thickness (cm) 15 20 25 30
Temp. Differential (0C) 15.6 16.4 16.6 16.8
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Computation of Warping Stress

Temperature stress in the Edge region
Obtained from Westergaard analysis using
Bradbury’s coefficients

Se= E TC
2
Se= temperature stress in the edge region kg/cm2
E = modulus of elasticity of concrete kg/cm2
= coefficient of thermal exp. of concrete / 0C
C = Bradbury's coefficient
T = temperature differential in the slab
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Bradbury Coefficients
1.2
Warping Stress Coefficient, C

1.0

0.8

0.6
B = Free length or
width of slab
0.4

0.2

0.0
0.0 5 10 15
Ratio B/l
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Design – Critical Combination of Stresses

• Wheel load – corner stress (discontinuity in two
directions) > edge stress > interior stress
• Warping stress – interior > edge > corner
• Day time – Interior and edge (load and warping
produce tensile stress at bottom)
• Night time – load and warping stresses produce
tensile stresses at top (slab tends to lift up)
• The combination of stresses in the edge region is
generally considered to be critical
• It is necessary to check for corner load stress
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Joints in Concrete Pavement

• Longitudinal joints in pavements of width > 4.5m
to allow for transverse contraction and warping
• Contraction Joint spacing of 4.5m for
unreinforced slab thickness of 15cm to 25 cm. For
higher slab thicknesses, the spacing will be 5.0m
• Expansion joints to be omitted (if dowel bars are
provided at contraction joints)
• Load Transfer across joints – Provide Dowel bars
across transverse joints
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Design Approach
• Main inputs – Axle load spectrum, temperature
differential, grade of concrete, foundation strength,
slab size
• The slab is to be designed to sustain fatigue damage,
flexural failure due to heavy load
• Erosion failure analysis not considered necessary as
the same is mostly caused by multi-axle vehicles. IRC
recommends provision of paved shoulder upto 1.5m
beyond the pavement
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Design Steps
1. Stipulate design values for various parameters
2. Decide types and spacing between joints
3. Select a trial design thickness of pavement slab
4. Compute the repetitions of axle loads of different
magnitudes during the design period
5. Calculate the stresses (edge) due to single and
tandem axle loads and determine cumulative
fatigue damage (CFD)
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Design Steps
6. If CFD >1.0, increase thickness repeat above
steps
7. Compute the temperature stress at the edge. If
temperature stress stress due to highest wheel
load is greater than the modulus of rupture,
select a higher thickness and repeat steps 1 to 6
8. Design pavement thickness on the basis of
corner stress if no dowel bars are provided and if
no load transfer through aggregate interlocking
is assumed
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Design Example
As given in Appendix 2 of IRC:58-2002
Design a 2-lane 2-way highway; Total 2-way traffic at
the end of construction period = 3000 cvpd; Rate of
traffic increase = 0.075 (7.5%); Slab width = 3.5m,
Spacing of contraction joint = 4.5m
MR of concrete = 45kg/cm2; K - of subgrade + DLC =
8 kg/cm3 ; E of concrete = 3 X 105 kg/cm2; Poisson
Ratio of concrete = 0.15; Tyre pressure = 8 kg/cm2
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Design Example
Axle load Spectrum obtained from axle load survey
Single Axle % of Axle loads Tandem Axle % of Axle
Load class in Load class in loads
Tonnes Tonnes
19 -21 0.6 38 - 34 0.30
17 – 19 1.50 34 - 30 0.30
15 – 17 4.8 26– 30 0.60
13 – 15 10.8 22 – 26 1.80
11 – 13 22.0 18 – 22 1.50
9 – 11 23.3 14 - 18 0.50
Less than 9 30.0 Less than 14 2.00
Total 93.0
Total 7.00
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Design Example - Solution

Present Traffic (cvpd) = 3000, Design Period (Yrs) = 20
Growth Rate (r) = 0.075

Cumulative repetitions in 20 yrs = 3000 * 365 * (1.075 20– 1)

0.075
= 47,418,626 commercial vehicles

Design Traffic = 0.25 * 47,418,826 = 11,854, 657 (25%)

Since front axles do not carry significant loads, consider

only the rear axles ( = 11,854, 657)
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Design Example - Solution

Single Axle Tandem Axle
Load Exp repetitions Load Exp repetitions
20 71127 36 35564
18 177820 32 35564
16 569023 28 71128
14 1280303 24 213384
12 2608024 20 177820
10 27622135 16 59273
<10 3556397 <16 237093
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Design Example - Solution

Select a trial thickness of 32 cm, consider a Load
safety Factor of 1.2
Axle Load AL*1.2 Stress SR Expect Rep Fat. Life Fat. Life
(tonnes) (kg/cm2) Consumed
Single Axle
20 24 25.2 0.56 71127 94100 0.76
18 21.6 22.9 0.51 177820 4.85 X 105 0.37
16 19.2 20.7 0.46 569023 14.33 X 106 0.04
14 16.8 18.5 0.41 128030 Infinite 0.00
Tandem Axle
36 43.2 20.1 0.45 35560 62.8 X 106 0.0006
32 38.4 18.4 0.40 35560 Infinite 0.00
Cumulative Fatigue life consumed = 1.1706
Trial thickness is inadequate
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Design Example - Solution

Select a trial thickness of 33 cm

Axle Load AL*1.2 Stress SR Expect Rep Fat. Life Fat. Life
(tonnes) (kg/cm2) Consumed
Single Axle
20 24 24.1 0.53 71127 2.16 X 105 0.33
18 21.6 22.0 0.49 177820 1.29 X 106 0.14
16 19.2 20.0 0.44 569023 Infinite 0.00
14 16.8 17.6 0.39 128030 Infinite 0.00
Tandem Axle
36 43.2 19.4 0.43 35560 Infinite 0.00

Cumulative Fatigue life consumed = 0.47

Trial thickness is adequate

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Design Example - Solution

Check the trial thickness for temperature stresses

Edge warping stress = Se= E TC

2
Length of slab = 450cm, width of slab = 350cm
Radius of relative stiffness = 103.5 cm (computed
using the expression given earlier)
L/l = 450/103.5, C = 0.55 from Figure
Assuming a temperature differential of 210C, edge
temperature stress = 17.3 kg/cm2

Temp Stress + Max load stress (edge) = 24.1 + 17.3 =

41.4 < 45 kg/cm2 (Hence OK)
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Design Example - Solution

Check for Corner Stress

Sc = 3P 1 – a √2 1.2
h2 l
Considering the 98th percentile load (16 tonnes),
Dual wheel load = 8 tonnes
Equivalent Radius of contact area = (0.8521P/( p)
+ S/ (P/.5227*p)0.5)0.5 = 26.51 cm
Corner stress = 15.52 kg/cm2 < 45 kg/cm2
Hence the Design is OK