BAHIR DAR UNIVERSITY, BiT

FACULTY OF CIVIL AND WATER

RESOURCES ENGINEERING
HIGHWAY ENGINEERING II

Tesfahun N.

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 CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL OVER VIEW OF PAVEMENTS

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INTRODUCTION
The field of pavement design is dynamic
The concepts are changing with time as technology develops and new
equipment emerges for:
site investigation
material testing
traffic data collection and
 new data become available.
In the early stage, pavement design was carried out by a rule-of-thumb
procedure based entirely on past experience.
Through the observation of performances of the already constructed
roads, highway engineers became aware that pavement performance is
dependent on subgrade soils.

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 INTRODUCTION(Cont…)
 Pavements constructed over plastic soils showed higher
distress than those constructed over granular deposits. With
the knowledge of soil mechanics, pavement design was made
with soil classification.
 With the increase in traffic and usage and development of
heavy transport means, the deterioration of pavements due
to heavy trucks and aircrafts necessitated a more rational
design approach
 This led to full-scale laboratory experiments in different
countries at different capacities.
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OVER VIEW OF PAVEMENT STRUCTURES
 A pavement is a layered structure that:
 supports the vehicle load on its surface and transfers and spreads
the load to the sub-grade without exceeding either the strength of
the sub-grade or the internal strength of the pavement itself.
 The basic idea in building a pavement for all-weather use by
vehicles is to prepare a suitable sub-grade, provide necessary
drainage, and construct a pavement that will:
 have sufficient total thickness and internal strength to carry
expected traffic loads, and distribute them over the subgrade
soil without overstressing;
 have adequate properties to prevent or minimize the
penetration or internal accumulation of moisture; and
 have a surface that is reasonably smooth and skid resistant at
the same time, as well as, reasonably resistant to wear,
distortion and deterioration by vehicle loads and weather.
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Over view of pavement structures (Cont…)
Types of pavements:
 Earth Roads
 Gravel Surfaced Roads
 Flexible Pavements
 Rigid Pavements Rigid Pavement

Flexible Pavement

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 Flexible Pavement
A flexible pavement is one, which has low flexural strength, and
the load is basically transmitted to the subgrade soil through the
lateral distribution of stresses with increasing depth.
The pavement thickness is designed such that
the stresses on the sub-grade soil are kept within its bearing
capacity and
the sub-grade is prevented from excessive deformation.
The strength and smoothness of flexible pavement structure
depends to a large extent on the deformation of the sub-grade soil.

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Flexible Pavements

Stress Distribution in
Flexible Pavements

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 Flexible Pavements
Generally, two types of construction have been used for flexible
pavements:
A. conventional flexible pavement, and
B. full-depth asphalt pavement
A third type, known as contained rock asphalt mat construction is still in
the experimental stage and has not been widely accepted for practical use.
A Conventional Flexible pavement normally consists of
 Bituminous Surface Course (wearing course + Binder Course)
 Base Course
 Subbase
 Improved Subgrade and/or Natural subgrade

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Flexible Pavement (Conventional)

Typical Cross
Section and Load
Distribution of a
Conventional
Flexible
Pavement

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Flexible Pavement (Conventional)
 A conventional pavement
normally consists of Surface
Course (wearing Course + Binder
course separated by tack coat), base
course, subbase course, Improved
subgrade (capping layer), and
natural subgrade.
 The use of various courses is based
on either necessity or economy
and some may be optional

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Flexible Pavement (Conventional)
Conventional flexible pavements are multi-layered structures with

 better materials on top where the intensity of stress is high and

 inferior materials at the bottom where the intensity is low.

 This design principle makes possible to use local materials and

usually results in a most economical design.

 This is particularly true in regions where high-quality

materials are expensive but local materials of inferior quality
are readily available.

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Flexible Pavement(Conventional)

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Flexible Pavement(Full Depth Asphalt)
 Full-depth asphalt pavements are constructed by placing
one or more layers of hot-mix asphalt directly on the
subgrade or improved subgrade.
 This concept was conceived by the Asphalt Institute and is
generally considered
 the most cost-effective for heavy traffic and
 quite popular in areas where local materials are not
readily available.

Typical Cross Section

of Full-Depth Asphalt

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Flexible Pavement(Full-Depth Asphalt)

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 Rigid Pavements
 Are pavement structures constructed of cement concrete slabs
 They derive their capacity to withstand vehicle loads from
flexural strength or beam strength due to high modulus of
elasticity.
 Because of high flexural strength,
 the vehicle load on cement concrete slab is distributed over a
relatively wider area of the soil than flexible pavements and
 thus, variation in the subgrade soil strength has little influence.
 The flexural strength also permits the slab to bridge over minor
irregularities under it.
 Thus, the performance of rigid pavements is more governed by
the strength of the concrete slab than the subgrade supports.
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Rigid Pavements (Cont…)

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 Rigid Pavements (Cont…)

Typical
Cross
Section and
Load
Distribution
of a Rigid
Pavement
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 Rigid Pavements (Cont…)
 There is alwaysa necessity to build a base course and/or a
subbase under cement concrete slab. This is
 where the subgrade soil cannot provide a uniform support,
or for one or more of the following reasons:
 Control of pumping
 Control of frost action
 Improvement of drainage
 Control of shrinkage and swell
 Expedition of Construction.

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 Rigid Pavements (Cont…)
Types of Rigid Pavements
 Concrete pavements can be classified into four types:
 Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP)
 Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement (JRCP)
 Continuous Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP)
 Pre-stressed Concrete Pavement (PCP):

Typical Schematics
of Rigid Pavements
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Rigid Pavements (Types) Cont…
Jointed Unreinforced Concrete Pavement (JUCP)

Joints accommodate shrinkage during drying

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Rigid Pavements (Types) Cont…
Jointed Un-reinforced Concrete Pavement (JPCP)

 Are plain concrete

pavements constructed
with closely spaced
contraction joints.
 Dowels or aggregate
interlocks may be used
for load transfer across
the joints.

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Rigid Pavements (Types) Cont…
Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement (JRCP)
 are concrete pavements with steel reinforcements in the
form of wire mesh or deformed bars mainly to allow the
use of longer joint spacing but do not increase the
structural capacity of pavements
 Because of the longer panel length, dowels are required for
load transfer across the joints.
 The amount of distributed steel increases with the increase in
joint spacing and is designed to hold the slab together after
cracking

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Rigid Pavements (Types) Cont…
Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP)
 are reinforced concrete
pavements designed joint-free
for the purpose of eliminating
joints, which are the weak spots
in rigid pavements.
 The elimination of joints would
decrease the thickness of
pavement required.

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Rigid Pavements (Types) Cont…
Pre-Stressed Concrete Pavement (PCP)
 the pre-application of a
compressive stress to the concrete
to greatly reduce the tensile stress
caused by the traffic loads and thus
decreases the thickness of concrete
required.
 The pre-stressed concrete
pavements have less probability of
cracking and fewer transverse
joints and therefore result in less
maintenance and longer pavement
life.
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Rigid Pavements (Types) Cont…
Types of Rigid Pavements

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Pavements (Flexible Vs Rigid )
Flexible Pavement Rigid Pavement
Advantage Advantage
 Adjust to limited  Good durability
differential settlement  Long service life
 Local defects easily repaired  Allow load distribution
 Additional thickness added over wider area
any time  Best suited for heavy
 Non-skid properties traffic loading
 Quieter and smoother  Withstand repeated
flooding and subsurface
 Tolerates a greater range of
water without
temperature variations
deterioration
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Pavements (Flexible Vs
Flexible Pavement
Disadvantage
 Loses some flexibility and
cohesion with time
 Needs routine and periodic
maintenance eg. Overlaying
sooner than PC concrete
 Deteriorate faster under
poor (sub) surface drainage
condition
Rigid )
Rigid Pavement
Disadvantage
 May lose non-skid
surface with time
 Needs even subgrade
support with uniform
settlement
 May fault at transverse
joints
 High Initial Cost

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 Composite Pavements
 Composite pavements are pavements composed of cement
concrete as a bottom layer and hot-mix asphalt as a top layer to
obtain an ideal pavement with the most desirable characteristics.
 The cement concrete slab provides a strong base and the hot-
mix asphalt provides a smooth and non-reflective surface.
 However, this type of pavement is very expensive and is rarely
used as a new construction.
 Composite pavements include rehabilitated concrete pavements
using asphalt overlays and asphalt pavements with stabilized
bases.

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 Composite Pavements
 For flexible pavements with untreated bases,

 the most critical tensile stress or strain occurs at the bottom of

asphalt layer,

 while for composite pavements the most critical stress is at the

bottom of the cement concrete slab or stabilized bases.

 A disadvantage of this construction is high cost and occurrence of

reflection cracks on the asphalt surface due to the joints and
cracks in the rigid base layer.
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 Highway and Airport Pavements
 The gross-weight of an airplane is usually greater than that of a heavy
truck,

 However, the number of load repetitions on airport pavements is

usually smaller than that on highway pavements.

 The arrangement and spacing of wheel loads on airport and

highway pavements are different.

 A typical tyre pressure on highway pavements is in the vicinity of

0.5MPa while aircrafts use a tyre pressure up to 3MPa which is an
important factor in the design of the materials in the upper layer of the
pavements.
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Highway and Airport Pavements (Cont…)
 Vehicle loads are applied near to the edge of highway
pavements but far away from the outside edge of airport
pavements.
 Unlike highway pavements, airfield pavements are
subjected to an impact loading.
 The design load of airport pavements is the wheel load of
the largest aircraft during takeoff time due to heavy fuel
weight.
 Although wheel loads can be used as design loads, number
of repetitions of standard axles is the commonly used
design parameter for highway pavements.

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Highway and Airport Pavements (Cont…)
Heavy Loads on Airport
Pavements

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 Basic Pavement Design Factors
 Factors that should be considered in pavement design

are:
A. Traffic loading (magnitude of axle load, configuration of
axle, and repetition of traffic)
B. Environment ( temperature, and precipitation)
C. Material (soils, aggregates, bituminous binders, and
cement)
D. Failure criteria

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 Basic Pavement Design Factors
Traffic Loading

Load
distribution
Axle
Configuration
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 Basic Pavement Design Factors
Environment:
 Temperature,
 Flexible pavement – elastic/viscoelastic properties of
bituminous materials
 Rigid pavement – warping/curling stresses
 Frost in the subgrade - heave and stronger subgrade in
the winter but a much weaker subgrade in the spring
 Precipitation
 Water requirement during construction;
 Strength of pavement structure; and
 Surface water drainage.

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 Basic Pavement Design Factors
Materials:
 Properties of soils, aggregates, bituminous binders,
cement, and their mixtures under traffic loading in
a given environmental conditions is fundamental for
designing a sound pavement structure
Performance and Failure Criteria
 Gravel roads – defects include: dust nuisance, potholing,
ravelling, corrugations, rutting, deformation, erosion,
slipperiness, impassibility and loss of wearing course
materials function, properties of materials of construction,
alignment, volume of traffic, etc.
 Flexible pavement – fatigue cracking ; rutting; potholing,
and thermal cracking
 Rigid pavement - fatigue cracking; pumping,and joint
deterioration
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 Basic Pavement Design Factors
 Fatigue cracking, rutting, and thermal cracking are the three principal
types of distress generally considered for flexible pavement design.
 Fatigue cracking is due to the horizontal tensile strains at the bottom of
bituminous layer.
 Rutting is a permanent deformation occurring along the wheel path.
 Thermal cracking includes low-temperature and thermal fatigue
cracking.
 Low temperature cracking is usually associated with flexible pavements
in cold regions where temperature fall below –23oC.
 Thermal fatigue cracking can occur in much milder regions if an
excessive hard bituminous binder is used or the binder becomes
hardened due to ageing.
 Methods of pavement design consider these pavement failures as design
criteria, but differently. 38
Thank You!!

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