Acknowledgement

I would like to thank respected Mr…….. and Mr for giving me such a

wonderful
opportunity to expand my knowledge for my own branch and giving me
guidelines to present a seminar report. It helped me a lot to realize of what
we study for.

Secondly, I would like to thank my parents who patiently helped me as

i went through my work and helped to modify and eliminate some of
the irrelevant or un-necessary stuffs.

Thirdly, I would like to thank my friends who helped me to make my

work more organized and well-stacked till the end.

Next, I would thank Microsoft for developing such a wonderful tool

like MS Word. It helped my work a lot to remain error-free.

Last but clearly not the least, I would thank The Almighty for giving
me strength to complete my report on time.
 Preface

I have made this report file on the topic Pavement Design; I have tried
my best to elucidate all the relevant detail to the topic to be included in
the report. While in the beginning I have tried to give a general view
about this topic.
My efforts and wholehearted co-corporation of each and everyone has
ended on a successful note. I express my sincere gratitude to who
assisting me throughout the preparation of
this topic. I thank him for providing me the reinforcement, confidence
and most importantly the track for the topic whenever I needed it.
 Overview

A highway pavement is a structure consisting of superimposed layers of

processed materials above the natural soil sub-grade, whose primary
function is to distribute the applied vehicle loads to the sub-grade. The
pavement structure should be able to provide a surface of acceptable
riding quality, adequate skid resistance, favorable light reflecting
characteristics, and low noise pollution. The ultimate aim is to ensure
that the transmitted stresses due to wheel load are sufficiently reduced,
so that they will not exceed bearing capacity of the sub-grade. Two
types of pavements are generally recognized as serving this purpose,
namely flexible pavements and rigid pavements.
This chapter gives an overview of pavement types, layers, and their
functions, and pavement failures. Improper design of pavements leads
to early failure of pavements affecting the riding quality.
 Requirements of a pavement

An ideal pavement should meet the following requirements:

 Sufficient thickness to distribute the wheel load stresses to a safe

value on the sub-grade soil,
 Structurally strong to withstand all types of stresses imposed upon it,

 Adequate coefficient of friction to prevent skidding of vehicles,

 Smooth surface to provide comfort to road users even at high speed,

 Produce least noise from moving vehicles,

 Dust proof surface so that traffic safety is not impaired by reducing

visibility,
 Impervious surface, so that sub-grade soil is well protected, and

 Long design life with low maintenance cost.

 Types of pavements

The pavements can be classified based on the structural performance

into two, flexible pavements and rigid pavements. In flexible pavements,
wheel loads are transferred by grain-to-grain contact of the aggregate
through the granular structure. The flexible pavement, having less
flexural strength, acts like a flexible sheet (e.g. bituminous road). On the
contrary, in rigid pavements, wheel loads are transferred to sub-grade
soil by flexural strength of the pavement and the pavement acts like a
rigid plate (e.g. cement concrete roads). In addition to these, composite
pavements are also available. A thin layer of flexible pavement over
rigid pavement is an ideal pavement with most desirable characteristics.
However, such pavements are rarely used in new construction because
of high cost and complex analysis required.

Flexible pavements

Flexible pavements will transmit wheel load stresses to the lower layers

by grain-to- grain transfer through the points of contact in the granular

structure (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Load transfer in granular structure
 Deflection on flexible pavement

The wheel load acting on the pavement will be distributed to a wider

area, and the stress decreases with the depth. Taking advantage of this
stress distribution characteristic, flexible pavements normally has
many layers. Hence, the design of flexible pavement uses the concept
of layered system. Based on this, flexible pavement may be
constructed in a number of layers and the top layer has to be of best
quality to sustain maximum compressive stress, in addition to wear and
tear. The lower layers will experience lesser magnitude of stress and
low quality material can be used. Flexible pavements are constructed
using bituminous materials. These can be either in the form of surface
treatments (such as bituminous surface treatments generally found on
low volume roads) or, asphalt concrete surface courses (generally used
on high volume roads such as national highways). Flexible pavement
layers reflect the deformation of the lower layers on to the surface
layer (e.g., if there is any undulation in sub-grade then it will be
transferred to the surface layer). In the case of flexible pavement, the
design is based on overall performance of flexible pavement, and the
stresses produced should be kept well below the allowable stresses of
each pavement layer.
 Types of Flexible Pavements

The following types of construction have been used in flexible pavement:

 Conventional layered flexible pavement,

 Full - depth asphalt pavement, and
 Contained rock asphalt mat (CRAM).

Conventional flexible pavements are layered systems with high

quality expensive materials are placed in the top where stresses are
high, and low quality cheap materials are placed in lower layers.

Full - depth asphalt pavements are constructed by placing bituminous

layers directly on the soil sub-grade. This is more suitable when there is
high traffic and local materials are not available.

Contained rock asphalt mats are constructed by placing dense/open

graded aggregate layers in between two asphalt layers. Modified dense
graded asphalt concrete is placed above the sub-grade will significantly
reduce the vertical compressive strain on soil sub-grade and protect
from surface water.
 Typical layers of a flexible pavement

Typical layers of a conventional flexible pavement includes seal coat,

surface course, tack coat, binder course, prime coat, base course, sub-
base course, compacted sub- grade, and natural sub-grade (Figure 2).

Seal Coat:

Seal coat is a thin surface treatment used to water-proof the surface and
to provide skid resistance.

Tack Coat:

Tack coat is a very light application of asphalt, usually asphalt emulsion

diluted with water. It provides proper bonding between two layer of
binder course and must be thin, uniformly cover the entire surface, and
set very fast.

Prime Coat:

Prime coat is an application of low viscous cutback bitumen to an

absorbent surface like granular bases on which binder layer is placed. It
provides bonding between two layers. Unlike tack coat, prime coat
penetrates into the layer below, plugs the voids, and forms a water tight
surface.
 Figure 2: Typical cross section of a flexible pavement

Surface course

Surface course is the layer directly in contact with traffic loads and
generally contains superior quality materials. They are usually
constructed with dense graded asphalt concrete(AC). The functions and
requirements of this layer are:

 It provides characteristics such as friction, smoothness, drainage,

etc. Also it will prevent the entrance of excessive quantities of
surface water into the underlying base, sub-base and sub-grade,
 It must be tough to resist the distortion under traffic and provide a
smooth and skid- resistant riding surface,It must be water proof to
protect the entire base and sub-grade from the weakening effect of
water.

Binder course
This layer provides the bulk of the asphalt concrete structure. It's chief
purpose is to distribute load to the base course The binder course
generally consists of aggregates having less asphalt and doesn't require
quality as high as the surface course, so replacing a part of the surface
course by the binder course results in more economical design.

Base course

The base course is the layer of material immediately beneath the

surface of binder course and it provides additional load distribution and
contributes to the sub-surface drainage It may be composed of crushed
stone, crushed slag, and other untreated or stabilized materials.

Sub-Base course

The sub-base course is the layer of material beneath the base course and
the primary functions are to provide structural support, improve
drainage, and reduce the intrusion of fines from the sub-grade in the
pavement structure If the base course is open graded, then the sub-base
course with more fines can serve as a filler between sub- grade and the
base course A sub-base course is not always needed or used. For
example, a pavement constructed over a high quality, stiff sub-grade
may not need the additional features offered by a sub-base course. In
such situations, sub-base course may not be provided.

Sub-grade

The top soil or sub-grade is a layer of natural soil prepared to receive the
stresses from the layers above. It is essential that at no time soil sub-
grade is overstressed. It should be compacted to the desirable density,
near the optimum moisture content.

Failure of flexible pavements

The major flexible pavement failures are fatigue cracking, rutting, and
thermal cracking. The fatigue cracking of flexible pavement is due to
horizontal tensile strain at the bottom of the asphaltic concrete. The
failure criterion relates allowable number of load repetitions to tensile
strain and this relation can be determined in the laboratory fatigue test
on asphaltic concrete specimens. Rutting occurs only on flexible
pavements as indicated by permanent deformation or rut depth along
wheel load path. Two design methods have been used to control rutting:
one to limit the vertical compressive strain on the top of subgrade and
other to limit rutting to a tolerable amount (12 mm normally). Thermal
cracking includes both low-temperature cracking and thermal fatigue
cracking.
TRAFFIC ANALYSIS

In construction of pavement the analysis of traffic intensity and growth

rate are very important.

To analyze traffic the following must be taken into consideration

• Truck factor

• Growth factor

• Lane

• Directional distribution

• Vehicle damage factors

• Effect of moving loads

• ADT (average daily traffic)

• AADT (annual average daily traffic)

Rigid pavements

Rigid pavements have sufficient flexural strength to transmit the wheel

load stresses to a wider area below. A typical cross section of the rigid
pavement is shown in Figure 3. Compared to flexible pavement, rigid
pavements are placed either directly on the prepared sub-grade or on a
single layer of granular or stabilized material. Since there is only one
layer of material between the concrete and the sub-grade, this layer can
be called as base or sub-base course.

Figure 3: Typical Cross section of Rigid pavement

In rigid pavement, load is distributed by the slab action, and the

pavement behaves like an elastic plate resting on a viscous medium
(Figure 4). Rigid pavements are constructed by Portland cement
concrete (PCC) and should be analyzed by plate theory instead of layer
theory, assuming an elastic plate resting on viscous foundation. Plate
theory is a simplified version of layer theory that assumes the concrete
slab as a medium thick plate which is plane before loading and to
remain plane after loading.
Bending of the slab due to wheel load and temperature variation and the
resulting tensile and flexural stress.
 Elastic plate resting on viscous foundation
Deflection on concrete pavement

Types of Rigid Pavements

Rigid pavements can be classified into four types:

 Jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP),

 Jointed reinforced concrete pavement (JRCP),
 Continuous reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP), and
 Pre-stressed concrete pavement (PCP).

Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement:

are plain cement concrete pavements constructed with closely spaced

contraction joints. Dowel bars or aggregate interlocks are normally used
for load transfer across joints. They normally has a joint spacing of 5 to
10m.

Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement:

Although reinforcements do not improve the structural capacity

significantly, they can drastically increase the joint spacing to 10 to 30m.
Dowel bars are required for load transfer. Reinforcements help to keep the
slab together even after cracks.

Continuous Reinforced Concrete Pavement:

Complete elimination of joints are achieved by reinforcement.

Failure criteria of rigid pavements

Traditionally fatigue cracking has been considered as the major, or only

criterion for rigid pavement design. The allowable number of load
repetitions to cause fatigue cracking depends on the stress ratio between
flexural tensile stress and concrete modulus of rupture. Of late, pumping
is identified as an important failure criterion. Pumping is the ejection of
soil slurry through the joints and cracks of cement concrete pavement,
caused during the downward movement of slab under the heavy wheel
loads. Other major types of distress in rigid pavements include faulting,
spalling, and deterioration.

The advantages of flexible pavements include -

» Adaptability to stage construction

» Availability of low-cost types that can be easily built

» Ability to be easily opened and patched

» Easy to repair frost heave and settlement

» Resistance to the formation of ice glaze

The disadvantages include -

» Higher maintenance costs

» Shorter life span under heavy use

» Damage by oils and certain chemicals

» Weak edges that may require curbs or edge devices

(i) Curbs can be used of concrete is probably the most

common material used for both barrier and mountable
curbs. Concrete curbs are durable and relatively easy to
construct.

(ii) Asphalt is frequently used for curbing, especially

where curved parking is lands must be constructed. They
are economical and easy to construct.

(iii)Granite curbs are not as frequently used as asphalt or

concrete unless granite is quarried in the area. Granite
curbs are far more durable than concrete.
 Summary

Pavements form the basic supporting structure in highway

transportation. Each layer of pavement has a multitude of functions to
perform which has to be duly considered during the design process.
Different types of pavements can be adopted depending upon the traffic
requirements. Improper design of pavements leads to early failure of
pavements affecting the riding quality also.