The document discusses the design of flexible pavements, which are composed of layers that deflect under loading to reduce stresses. It describes empirical and mechanistic empirical methods for determining layer thickness and composition based on factors like traffic loads and temperature variations. Equivalent single wheel loads and axle loads are also covered, which allow expressing multi-axle vehicles as a single standard load for design purposes based on failure criteria like fatigue cracking or rutting.
The document discusses the design of flexible pavements, which are composed of layers that deflect under loading to reduce stresses. It describes empirical and mechanistic empirical methods for determining layer thickness and composition based on factors like traffic loads and temperature variations. Equivalent single wheel loads and axle loads are also covered, which allow expressing multi-axle vehicles as a single standard load for design purposes based on failure criteria like fatigue cracking or rutting.
The document discusses the design of flexible pavements, which are composed of layers that deflect under loading to reduce stresses. It describes empirical and mechanistic empirical methods for determining layer thickness and composition based on factors like traffic loads and temperature variations. Equivalent single wheel loads and axle loads are also covered, which allow expressing multi-axle vehicles as a single standard load for design purposes based on failure criteria like fatigue cracking or rutting.
The document discusses the design of flexible pavements, which are composed of layers that deflect under loading to reduce stresses. It describes empirical and mechanistic empirical methods for determining layer thickness and composition based on factors like traffic loads and temperature variations. Equivalent single wheel loads and axle loads are also covered, which allow expressing multi-axle vehicles as a single standard load for design purposes based on failure criteria like fatigue cracking or rutting.
Engineering Instructor Dr. Saima Riaz Assistant Professor Department of Geological Engineering UET, Lahore, Pakistan. Date: December 23, 2015
Flexible pavement design
Overview Flexible pavements are so named because the total pavement structure deflects, or exes, under loading. A flexible pavement structure is typically composed of several layers of materials. Each layer receives loads from the above layer, spreads them out, and passes on these loads to the next layer below. Thus the stresses will be reduced, which are maximum at the top layer and minimum on the top of subgrade. In order to take maximum advantage of this property, layers are usually arranged in the order of descending load bearing capacity with the highest load bearing capacity material (and most expensive) on the top and the lowest load bearing capacity material (and least expensive) on the bottom.
Design procedures For flexible pavements, structural design is mainly concerned with determining appropriate layer thickness and composition. The main design factors are stresses due to traffic load and temperature variations. Two methods of flexible pavement structural design are common today: Empirical design and mechanistic empirical design.
Empirical design To carry maximum load with in the specified limit and to carry greater load, dual wheel, or dual tandem assembly is often used. Equivalent single wheel load (ESWL) is the single wheel load having the same contact pressure, which produces same value of maximum stress, deflection, tensile stress or contact pressure at the desired depth. The procedure of finding the ESWL for equal stress criteria is provided below. This is a semi-rational method, known as Boyd and Foster method, based on the following assumptions: equalancy concept is based on equal stress; contact area is circular; influence angle is 45o; and soil medium is elastic, homogeneous, and isotropic half space.
The ESWL is given by:
where P is the wheel load, S is the centre to
centre distance between the two wheels, d is the clear distance between two wheels, and z is the desired depth.
Example 1 Find ESWL at depths of 5cm, 20cm and 40cm for a dual wheel carrying 2044 kg each. The centre to centre tyre spacing is 20cm and distance between the walls of the two tyres is 10cm. Solution For desired depth z=40cm, which is twice the tyre spacing, ESWL = 2P=22044 = 4088 kN. For z=5cm, which is half the distance between the walls of the tyre, ESWL = P = 2044kN. For z=20cm,
Therefore, ESWL= antilog(3.511)= 3244.49 kN
Fig: ESWL-Equal stress concept
Equivalent single axle load
Vehicles can have many axles which will distribute the load into different axles, and in turn to the pavement through the wheels. A standard truck has two axles, front axle with two wheels and rear axle with four wheels. But to carry large loads multiple axles are provided. Since the design of flexible pavements is by layered theory, only the wheels on one side needed to be considered. On the other hand, the design of rigid pavement is by plate theory and hence the wheel load on both sides of axle need to be considered. Legal axle load: The maximum allowed axle load on the roads is called legal axle load. For highways the maximum legal axle load specified by IRC, is 10 tonnes. Standard axle load: It is a single axle load with dual wheel carrying 80 KN load and the design of pavement is based on the standard axle load.
Equivalent axle load factor: An equivalent axle load factor (EALF) denes the damage per pass to a pavement by the ith type of axle relative to the damage per pass of a standard axle load. While nding the EALF, the failure criterion is important. Two types of failure criterias are commonly adopted: fatigue cracking and ruttings. The fatigue cracking model has the following form: where, Nf is the number of load repetition for a certain percentage of cracking, t is the tensile strain at the bottom of the binder course, E is the modulus of elasticity, and f1; f2; f3 are constants. If we consider fatigue cracking as failure criteria, and a typical value of 4 for f2, then:
where, i indicate ith vehicle, and std indicate the standard axle. Now if we assume that the strain is proportional to the wheel load,
Similar results can be obtained if rutting model is used, which is:
where Nd is the permissible design rut depth (say 20mm), c is the
compressive strain at the top of the subgrade, and f4; f5 are constants. Once we have the EALF, then we can get the ESAL as given below.
where,m is the number of axle load groups, Fi is the EALF for ith axle load group, and ni is the number of passes of ith axle load group during the design period.
Example 2 Let number of load repetition expected by 80 KN standard axle is 1000, 160 KN is 100 and 40 KN is 10000. Find the equivalent axle load.
The ESAL is given as Fini = 3225 kN
Example 3 Let the number of load repetition expected by 120 kN axle is 1000, 160 kN is 100, and 40 kN is 10,000. Find the equivalent standard axle load if the equivalence criteria is rutting. Assume 80 kN as standard axle load and the rutting model is
The ESAL is given as Fini = 8904.94 kN
Example 4 Let number of load repetition expected by 60kN standard axle is 1000, 120kN is 200 and 40 kN is 10000. Find the equivalent axle load using fatigue cracking as failure criteria according to IRC.
