‫‪Pavement Design‬‬

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‫جامعـ ـ ــة ده ـ ـ ــوك التقـ ــنية‬
‫‪Duhok Polytechnic University‬‬
 Introduction to pavement design
1.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

‫زانك ــويا ثوليت ــةكنيكى يا ده ــؤك‬

‫جامعـ ـ ــة ده ـ ـ ــوك التقـ ــنية‬
Ir. Eng Samir H Arif –Asphalt Technology / TCOE-Highway Duhok Polytechnic
& Bridge University
Department
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.

A Pavement is a multi-layered structure. The layers are

placed one over other. In general, the strengths of the
layers decrease from top towards bottom except some
special situation like inverted pavement. The
terminologies used to identify various layers of
bituminous and concrete pavements
A layered elastic model can compute stresses,
strains, and deflections at any point in a
pavement structure resulting from the application
of a surface load. Layered elastic models
assume that each pavement structural layer is
homogeneous, isotropic, and linearly elastic. In
other words, the material properties are same at
every point in a given layer and the layer will
rebound to its original form once the load is
removed. The layered elastic approach works
with relatively simple mathematical models that
relates stress, strain, and deformation with wheel
loading and material properties like modulus of
elasticity and poissons ratio.
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‫جامعـ ـ ــة ده ـ ـ ــوك التقـ ــنية‬
Ir. Eng Samir H Arif –Asphalt Technology / TCOE-Highway & Bridge Department Duhok Polytechnic University
 Types of pavement structures
• Pavements, in general, can be classified in two
major categories: concrete pavement and
bituminous pavement.
•Concrete pavements are generally called rigid
pavements and bituminous pavements as
flexible pavements.
•composite pavement.

‫زانك ــويا ثوليت ــةكنيكى يا ده ــؤك‬

‫جامعـ ـ ــة ده ـ ـ ــوك التقـ ــنية‬
Ir. Eng Samir H Arif –Asphalt Technology / TCOE-Highway Duhok Polytechnic
& Bridge University
Department
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 reducin
visibility,
 Impervious surface, so that sub-grade soil is well protected, and
 Long design life with low maintenance cost.

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‫جامعـ ـ ــة ده ـ ـ ــوك التقـ ــنية‬
Ir. Eng Samir H Arif –Asphalt Technology / TCOE-Highway Duhok Polytechnic
& Bridge University
Department
Design Methods of flexible pavement design can be
classified into five
categories: empirical method with or without a soil strength
test, limiting shear failure method, limiting deflection
method, regression method based on pavement performance
or road test, and mechanistic–empirical method .
The use of the empirical method without a strength test
dates back to the development of the Public Roads (PR) soil
classification system, The empirical method with a strength test was
first used by the California Highway Department The thickness of
pavements was related to the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) ,
defined as the penetration resistance of a sub-grade soil relative to a
standard crushed rock.
The disadvantage of an empirical method is that it can be applied only
to a given set of environmental, material, and loading conditions . If
these conditions are changed ,the design is no longer valid, and a new
method must be developed through trial and error to be conformant to
the new conditions.

 Limiting Shear Failure Methods The limiting shear failure method is

used to determine the thickness of pavements so that shear failures will
not occur .
 Limiting Deflection Methods The limiting deflection method is used
to determine the thickness of pavements so that the vertical deflection
will not exceed the allowable limit.
Regression Methods Based on Pavement Performance or Road Tests A
good example of the use of regression equations for pavement design is
the AASHTO method based on the results of road tests. The is
disadvantage of the method is that the design equations can be applied
only to the conditions at the road test site.
Mechanistic–Empirical Methods The mechanistic–empirical method
of design is based on the mechanics of materials that relates an input,
such as a wheel load, to an output or pavement response, such as stress
or strain . The response values are used to predict distress from
laboratory-test and field-performance data . Dependence o n
observed performance is necessary because theory alone has not
proven sufficient to design pavements realistically .
 recommended the use of horizontal tensile strain at the bottom of
asphalt layer to minimize fatigue cracking,

 The use of vertical compressive strain to control permanent

deformation is based on the fact that plastic strains are proportional to
elastic strains in paving materials . Thus, by limiting the elastic strains on
the sub-grade, the elastic strains in other components above the sub-
grade will also be controlled.
 The advantages of mechanistic methods are the improvement in the
reliability of a design, the ability to predict the types of distress, and the
feasibility to extrapolate from limited field and laboratory data
 Other developments in flexible pavement design include the
application of computer programs, the incorporation of
serviceability and reliability ,and the consideration of dynamic
loading .(DAMA, BISAR, LSYM5, PDMAP, DIPLOMAT, etc…)

Tensile and compressive strains in flexible pavements

Flexible Pavement : resist the load by deflection, because the stress is
distributed( spread-narrowly)
Rigid pavement : resist the load applied by beams or plate(bending
action) the stress distributed widely.
Typical cross-section of a full-depth asphalt pavement

Typical cross section of a rigid pavement

 ‫زانك ــويا ثوليت ــةكنيكى يا ده ــؤك‬
‫جامعـ ـ ــة ده ـ ـ ــوك التقـ ــنية‬
Ir. Eng Samir H Arif –Asphalt Technology / TCOE-Highway Duhok Polytechnic
& Bridge University
Department
cars 32-40 psi Tire pressures:
Truck 85-125 psi
Airplane 125-350 psi
Two different cross-sections for
composite pavements
Example: Pavement with tire pressure =35 psi, max
load is 750 pound, what is contact area?
sol/)
P=load/area=750/35=2 square inch
The shape of the area under
The tires look like
Heavier axle loads are always applied on dual tires. Figure
below shows the approximate shape of contact area for each
tire, which is composed of a rectangle and two semicircles .
Ac = ar(0.3L) 2 + (0.4L)(0.6L) = 0.5227L 2 , o r
Standard single Axle load truck tires
is :Std=18 kip=18000 pound
Divided 4 tires =4500 pound for each tire
Contact area=load/pressure
A=4500/100=45 sq inch
A=П((r/2)2)=3.78’’
Example: for figure as shown, determine the
Equivalent two tires=2x3.78=7.56’’
33/Z=2/1
Z=16.5”
Area= П((r/2)2= П(40.56/2)2)=
Stress=4500x4/П(40.56)2=3.47 psi

This number will be much lower under

concrete pavement because concrete pavement
the pressure will distributed it widely across
surface area.
Specifications in pavement design

Specifications in pavement design area generally fall in four

categories as follow:
1-surface treatment
It shows the effect of two parameters on the rutting
performance of a mix under medium-volume traffic. The two parameters are
the type of asphalt and the modulus of the base. The type of binder and the
asphalt content of the base are selected during mix design.
The years-to-failure chart shows that a “stiffer” asphalt binder takes a longer
time to fail by rutting. That is, it has a higher resistance to structural rutting.
At the same time, a mix with a high modulus base shows more resistance to
structural rutting than the one with a low modulus.
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.

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Duhok Polytechnic University
Ir. Eng Samir H Arif –Asphalt Technology / TCOE-Highway & Bridge Department
 Figure 4: Typical cross section of a flexible pavement

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Duhok Polytechnic University

Ir. Eng Samir H Arif –Asphalt Technology / TCOE-Highway & Bridge Department
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 4).

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.

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.