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Rigid Pavement Thickness Design

This document provides the solution to a rigid pavement thickness design problem for a four-lane interstate with the following parameters: a clay subgrade with k-value of 35 MPa/m, 100 mm untreated subbase, concrete modulus of rupture of 4.5 MPa, 20 year design period, current ADT of 12,900 growing at 4% annually, and 19% of traffic being trucks. The solution involves calculating the expected load repetitions from the traffic data, determining the equivalent stress and stress ratio factors, erosion factors, and using these in a fatigue analysis to check that the trial thickness of 240 mm is sufficient.

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Faeez Zain
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516 views2 pages

Rigid Pavement Thickness Design

This document provides the solution to a rigid pavement thickness design problem for a four-lane interstate with the following parameters: a clay subgrade with k-value of 35 MPa/m, 100 mm untreated subbase, concrete modulus of rupture of 4.5 MPa, 20 year design period, current ADT of 12,900 growing at 4% annually, and 19% of traffic being trucks. The solution involves calculating the expected load repetitions from the traffic data, determining the equivalent stress and stress ratio factors, erosion factors, and using these in a fatigue analysis to check that the trial thickness of 240 mm is sufficient.

Uploaded by

Faeez Zain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RIGID PAVEMENT THICKNESS DESIGN (PCA)

QUESTION
The design involves a four-lane interstate pavement with doweled joints and no concrete shoulders.
A 100 mm untreated subbase will be placed on a clay subgrade with a k value of 35 MPa/m. Other
information include concrete modulus of rupture = 4.5 MPa, design period = 20 years, current ADT =
12,900, annual growth rate = 4% and ADTT =19% of ADT.

SOLUTION
Use: Load Safety Factor (LSF) = 1.2
Trial Slab Thickness = 240 mm

1. Trucks on design lane in design period
= ADTT x Design years x 365 ( pg: 18 REAM-GL 7/2004) Pf Table 3 REAM
= 0.19*12,900 x 20 x 365
= 17,892,300

2. Trucks on design lane in design period (per 1000)
T = 17,892,300/1000
= 17,893

3. Expected Repititions
for Single Axles; for Tandem Axles;
Obtain A from Table 5 (column 2) Obtain A from Table 5 (Column 2)
T=17,893 T=17,893







Include the data into calculation of pavement thickness worksheet
SINGLE AXLES
Axle Load
(KN)
Axles Per
1,000 Trucks,
A
Expected
repetitions
T x A
133 0.28 5,010
125 0.65 11,630
115 1.33 23,798
107 2.84 50,816
98 4.72 84,455
89 10.40 186,087
80 13.56 242,629
TANDEM AXLES
Axle Load
(KN)
Axles Per
1,000 Trucks,
A
Expected
repetitions
T x A
231 0.94 16,819
213 1.89 33,818
195 5.51 98,590
178 16.45 294,340
160 39.08 699,258
142 41.06 734,687
125 73.07 1,307,442
4. Equivalent Stress
From Table 6a No Concrete Shoulders (Appendix B-2), with Slab thickness
= 240 mm and k = 35 MPa/m
Equivalent Stress = 1.44 (single axle) and 1.35 (tandem axles)

5. Stress Ratio Factor
For single axle,
Stress Ratio Factor = Equivalent Stress / M
R
= 1.44 / 4.5
= 0.32
For tandem axles,
Stress Ratio Factor = 1.35 / 4.5
= 0.30

6. Erosion Factor
From Table 7a Doweled Joints, No Concrete Shoulder (Appendix B-3), with Slab thickness
=240 mm and k = 35 Mpa/m
Erosion factor = 2.61 (single axle) and 2.80 (tandem axles)

7. Fatigue Analysis
Compute Allowable Load Repetitions from Figure 5 (Appendix B-5) and calculate Fatigue Percent.

Example: For single axle load 160 kN with stress ratio factor 0.32,
Allowable load repititions = 21,000
Fatigue percent = (5,010 / 21,000)*100%
= 23.9%

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