Introduction to pavement design

Lecture notes in Transportation Systems Engineering

3 August 2009

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

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 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).

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 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

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 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.

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 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:

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 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

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 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

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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 Elastic plate resting on viscous foundation

Deflection on concrete pavement

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 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

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 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.

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.

Problems

1. The thin layer of bitumen coating between an existing

bituminous layer and a new bituminous layer is:
1. Seal coat
2. Intermediate coat
3. Tack coat
4. Prime coat
2. Rigid pavements are designed by
1. Rigid plate theory
2. Elastic plate theory
3. Infinite layer theory
4. Interlocking of aggregates

Solutions

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 1. The thin layer of bitumen coating between an existing
bituminous layer and a new bituminous layer is:
1. Seal coat
2. Intermediate coat
3. Tack coat

4. Prime coat
2. Rigid pavements are designed by
1. Rigid plate theory
2. Elastic plate theory

3. Infinite layer theory

4. Interlocking of aggregates

Bibliography

Prof. Tom V. Mathew 2009-08-03

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