HPD

MODULE 3
OVERVIEW
• EMPIRICAL, SEMI - EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL
APPROACHES FOR FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT DESIGN,
• GROUP INDEX (G.I METHOD),
• CBR METHOD,
• TRIAXIAL METHOD,
• MCLEOD METHOD
• BURMISTER LAYERED SYSTEM METHODS
 Design of Flexible pavement

Mix design of materials to Thickness design of pavement

be used in each pavement and the component layers
component layer
Design of Flexible Pavements
➢Designed such that various layers in the pavement should not be overstressed
➢As load intensity is maximum on top layers , superior materials are to be provided at
top layers
1. Empirical Methods (physical properties / strength of subgrade)
GI method, CBR method, Stabilometer method, McLeod method
2. Semi Empirical Methods (design based on stress – strain theory and modified
based on experience)
Tri-axial Method
3. Theoretical Methods (based on theoretical analysis and mathematical
computations)
Burmister method
Flexible pavement design methods followed in various countries
may be grouped into two following approaches

➢Empirical Methods and design charts based on subgrade soil and

pavement layer properties
➢A combination of analytical or mechanistic approach assuming
certain strength characteristics and empirical design parameters
Advantages and Limitations of Empirical design methods

Advantages

➢Set of design charts are developed on studies carried out in actual set of
conditions prevalent in the region

➢Final form of design charts are Easy to use

Limitations

➢Cannot make use of same set of design charts in another charts if there is
variation in design factors
Advantages and Limitations of Mechanistic-Empirical design
methods
Advantages
➢Possible to determine the stress and strain values in different pavement layers
➢It is important to evaluate the strength characteristics, stress strain behaviour
of the various pavement layers
Limitations
➢Difficult to correctly evaluate the strength characteristics of the pavement
materials by taking into effects the climatic and environmental variations
➢Allowable values of stresses and strains need to be fixed based on experience
CBR Method of Pavement Design
➢California Divisions of Highway , USA developed California Bearing Ratio
method for pavement design

➢CBR tests were carried out and with the extensive data set collected on
pavements that behaved satisfactorily and also on those which failed an
empirical design chart was developed correlating the CBR value and the
pavement thickness

➢Basis of design chart is that a subgrade soil with a given CBR required a
certain thickness of pavement above it
Advantages of CBR method

➢Simplicity in conducting CBR Test

➢Method of pavement design using CBR charts
➢Different countries develop their own design charts
Limitations
➢Empirical penetration test for assessing the strength properties
• CBR do not indicate any basic strength properties of soil
➢Punching shear under CBR test condition does not indicate stress on
subgrade due to traffic intensity
➢Soaking conditions requires to be properly decided
• Specified four days soaking period may not be sufficient for some
clayey soils to represent the worst field moisture content
➢Total thickness remains same irrespective of the type of materials used
in different pavement layers.
➢Different countries/ regions require different design charts
EMPIRICAL METHODS OF PAVEMENT DESIGN
• CBR METHOD
• GROUP INDEX METHOD
• TRIAXIAL METHOD
• McLEOD METHOD
1. CBR METHOD OF FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT DESIGN
Basic Principle
Total Thickness of flexible pavement depends on
➢CBR value of the soil subgrade over which pavement is to be laid
➢Low CBR →Thicker pavement
➢Magnitude of the wheel load or intensity of traffic loads
➢Particular CBR value- Heavy traffic load → Thicker pavements
➢ Soaked CBR value determined from laboratory
➢ From designed charts, for given CBR and design traffic the total thickness of flexible
pavement over subgrade soil is selected
• Flexible Pavement Design Procedure:
• DESIGN PARAMETERS
1. DESIGN TRAFFIC IN CVPD = A = P (𝟏 + 𝒓 )𝒏+𝒚
• where P = present ADT in CVPD
• r = traffic growth rate ( normally 7.5 or 8 % )
• n = design life in years (normally 10-15 years)
• y = construction period

2. CBR values of subgrade and different layers of pavement

• The layers should be arranged in the increasing order of CBR value from bottom
to top
3. Determine the depth of pavement / thickness using design chart given
 2. GROUP INDEX(G.I METHOD)
• The group index method is essentially an empirical method based on
the physical properties of the subgrade soil and it does not consider
the strength characteristics of soil and is therefore open to question
regarding its reliability.
• Determination of Group Index Value of Soil Subgrade
• Group Index is a number assigned to the soil based on its physical
properties like particle size, Liquid limit and plastic limit.
• It varies from a value of 0 to 20, lower the value higher is the quality of
the sub-grade and greater the value, poor is the sub-grade.
• By sieve analysis test we can determine Group index value of soil
subgrade from below equation
• GI = 0.2a + 0.005 ac + 0.01bd
• Where, a= percentage of soil passing 0.074 mm sieve in excess of 35 per
cent, not exceeding 75. (a= F-35)
• b= percentage of soil passing 0.074 mm sieve in excess of 15 per cent, not
exceeding 55. (b= F-15)
• c= Liquid limit in per cent in excess of 40. (c= L.L- 40)
• d= Plasticity index in excess of 10.(d=Ip – 10)
• Group Index Method of Flexible Pavement Design
• Data Required for Flexible Pavement Design
➢1. Group index of soil subgrade Group index value range of different
soils is given below
➢For good soil – 0 to 1
➢For fair soil – 2 to 4
➢For poor soil – 5 to 9
➢For very poor soil – 10 to 20
• 2. Traffic volume It is the measure of Annual average daily traffic, peak-hour
traffic. It is denominated by commercial vehicles/day or CVPD. It is classified
in three categories. Based on number of vehicles per day. If no. of vehicles
per days is
➢<50 - light traffic
➢50-300 - medium traffic
➢>300 - Heavy traffic
• Calculation total thickness (T):
• From the below chart for given group index of soil subgrade and traffic
volume value select appropriate thick curve value of “combined thickness
of surface, base and sub-base line” which will give the total thickness of
pavement.
• (Note: thick line indicates the total thickness value and the dotted line
indicates thickness of surface and base)
• Calculation thickness of sub-base course (tsb): From the below chart for
given group index of soil subgrade select appropriate curve value of
“thickness of sub base only” which will give the thickness of the sub-
base course. The curve highlighted in below diagram
• Calculation of thickness of base and surface course (tb & ts):
• Thickness of surface and base course = total thickness – sub-base
thickness= T - tsb
• The combined value of thickness of base and surface course can be found
out from above chart form dotted curve with the help of group index
value and traffic volume. Or otherwise assume the thickness of surface
course (ts) = 5 cm
• Then we can easily calculate the value of thickness of the base course,
• Tb = T-tsb-ts
3. McLEOD METHOD

(Kg)
 4. TRIAXIAL METHOD OF PAVEMENT
DESIGN
• In this method triaxial test is conducted on soil specimen under
160kN/m2 of lateral pressure.
• Hence modulus of elasticity is calculated from stress strain curve.
Traffic coefficient X and saturation coefficient Y are introduced in
this method.
• These are multiplied with the load system to get the total pavement
thickness.
• Total pavement thickness by triaxial test method
ADT (number) Traffic coefficient X
Average annual Saturation
40-400 ½ rainfall (cm) coefficient (Y)
401-800 2/3
38-50 0.5
801-1200 5/6
1201-1800 1 51-64 0.6
1801-2700 7/6
65-76 0.7
2701-4000 8/6
4001-6000 9/6 77-90 0.8
6001-9000 10/6
91-100 0.9
9001-13500 11/6
13501-20000 12/6 101-127 1.0
BURMISTER LAYERED
SYSTEM METHODS
BURMISTERS TWO LAYER SYSTEM
➢Flexible pavements are layered systems with better materials on top and
cannot be represented by a homogeneous mass.
➢The effect of layers above subgrade is to reduce the stress and deflections in
the subgrade.
➢ Two layer-system
➢ HMA placed directly on sub-grade (Asphalt Institute's full depth
construction).
➢ Asphalt surface course, granular base course, sub-grade - Combine
base course and sub-grade into single layer or combine asphalt surface
course and base course into single layer
➢Burmister (1958) obtained solutions for two-layer problem by using strain
continuity equations.
➢Vertical stress on top of sub-grade and vertical surface deflection are two important
design criteria.

Vertical Stress
The vertical stress on the top of subgrade is an important factor in pavement
design.
The function of a pavement is to reduce the vertical stress on the subgrade so that
detrimental pavement deformations will not occur .
➢ Vertical stress depends on the modular ratio (i.e., E1/E2) and thickness to radius
ratio(h1/a)
➢ Vertical stress decreases considerably with increase in modular ratio.
➢ For example,
➢for a/h1=1 and E1/E2 = 1, σz at interface = 65% of contact pressure
➢for a/h1=1 and E1/E2 = 100, σz at interface = 8% of contact pressure
➢For a given applied stress q, the vertical stress
increases with the increase in contact radius and
decreases with the increase in thickness.

Burmister(1958) - Vertical interface stress

Burmister(1958) - Vertical stress distribution
➢Here the thickness of the top layer is equal to
the radius of contact area
➢ Vertical stress decreases significantly with
increase in modular ratio.
➢ For the Boussinesq‘s case, vertical stress is
close to 68% of the applied stress.
Vertical surface deflection in two layer system

➢Burmister (1958) developed a chart for computing vertical surface deflection

in a two-layer system.
➢Deflection expressed in terms of deflection factor F2

➢The deflection factor, F2, is obtained from the chart based on the values of
a/h1 and E1/E2.
• Then the deflection is computed from the following equations:
➢Most of the deflection is caused by the elastic compression of the subgrade
layer.
➢An increase in either the pavement thickness h1 or stiffness of pavement
layer E1 causes a reduction in the deflection.
➢ Greater reduction will occur by increasing the modulus or rigidity of the
pavement than by increasing its thickness.
Interface deflection (Huang)

➢ An extension to Burmister’s 2 layer

➢F factors – a function of ratio of h and a
➢ Assume μ=0.5
BURMISTERS TWO LAYER METHOD-
FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT DESIGN
BURMISTERS TWO LAYER METHOD-
FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT DESIGN
DEFLECTION CHARTS (NOTE: any chart can
be used)
BURMISTERS THREE LAYER
SYSTEM

➢ After Burmister , Fox and Acum developed extensive tabular

summary for normal and radial stresses for three layer system at
intersection of plate axis and layer interfaces.
➢ Jones and Peattie expanded these solutions to much wider
range of parameters
Solutions for these stresses are considered

σr1’: Horizontal stress at top of Layer 2

σr2’: Horizontal stress at top of Layer 3
➢ At axis of symmetry, the radial stress = tangential stress
➢Shear stress =0
➢ For poisson’s ratio = 0.5,

➢ Radial strain= one half of vertical strain and in opposite direction

➢ Sum of strains=0
➢ The stresses in three layer system depends on ratios of k1,k2,A,and H.

➢ Jones (1962) presented a series of tables for determining σ z1, σ z1 –

σr1,σz2, and σz2 – σr2.
➢ Strains at the top of the layers
The tables presented by Jones consist of four values of k1 and k2 (0.2, 2, 20,
and 200), so solutions for intermediate values of k1 and k2 can be obtained
by interpolation .
Table presents the stress factors for three-layer systems . The sign
convention n is positive in compression and negative in tension . Four sets of
stress factors,ZZ1,ZZ2, ZZ1 – RR1, and ZZ2 – RR2 are shown . The product
of the contact pressure and the stress factors gives the stresses :
Peattie (1962) plotted Jones' table in graphical forms.

Fig. shows one set of charts for radial strain factors, (RR1 - ZZ1)/2, at the
bottom of layer .
the radial strain can be determined fro m
Charts for horizontal strain factors for bottom of layer 1