Oct/24/2018

Highway Engineering II
CENG 4183
Lecture one

Eyob Tesfamariam
[email protected]
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1. General
1.2. Overview of Pavement Structures
1.2.1. Flexible Pavements
1.2.2. Rigid Pavements
1.3. Basic Design Data
 1.1. General
Flexible Pavement Layers
– Surface course
• Wearing course
– (Tack coat b/n binder and wearing
course)
• Binder course
– Prime coat b/n base and binder
course)
– Base course
– Sub base
– Capping layer (optional)
– Subgrade (existing soil)

Rigid pavement layers

– Concrete slab
– Base/sub-base course
– Preparing Subgrade (existing soil)
1.2. Overview of Pavement Structures
The basic idea in building a pavement for all-weather
use by vehicles is to prepare a suitable sub grade, provide
necessary drainage and construct a pavement that will:
 Have sufficient total thickness and internal strength to
carry expected traffic loads, and distribute them over the
sub grade soil without over stressing.
 Have adequate properties to prevent or minimize the
penetration or internal accumulation of moisture, and
 Have a surface that is reasonably smooth and skid
resistant at the same time, as well as reasonably resistant
to wear, distortion and deterioration by vehicle loads and
weather
Cont.……………
The functional requirements of pavements are achieved
through careful considerations of:
 Selection of pavement type,
 Selection of materials to be used for various pavement layers
and treatment of subgrade soils,
 Structural thickness design for pavement layers,
 Subsurface drainage design for the pavement system,
 Surface drainage and geometric design, and
 Ridability of pavement surface.

Earth road
Road
Gravel road Rigid pavement
type
Paved road Flexible pavement
 Earth road Gravel roads
 Designed for a very low traffic  Better than earth roads,
 Constructed by spreading gravel over
 Used when there is economic
the subgrade, shaping and compacting
limitation to avoid excessive strain at the sub
 The natural sub grade soil can grade level
be made to carry the traffic  Usually provides services in all seasons
load after clearing and shaping with less frequent reshaping as
 Require compared to earth roads.
reshaping after  Designed to carry low to medium
seasonal changes. traffic & serve as stage construction.
Cont.……………
Pavements are generally classified into two Categories,
1. Flexible pavements
2. Rigid pavements.
The basis for classification is the way by which traffic loads are
transmitted to the subgrade soil through the pavement structure.
Flexible pavements
 Sufficient thickness for load distribution through a multilayer
structure,
 It has low flexural strength and the load is largely
transmitted to the sub grade soil through the lateral
distribution of stresses with increasing depth.
 The stresses & strains in the sub-grade soil layers are within
the required limits.
 The strength of subgrade soil would have a direct bearing
on the total thickness of the flexible pavement.
Cont.……………
 The pavement thickness is designed such that stresses on the subgrade soil are
kept within its bearing capacity and the sub grade is prevented from excessive
deformation.
 Its structural strength and smoothness depends to a large extent on the
deformation of the subgrade soil
 Designed to take advantage of the decreasing magnitude of stresses with depth
in a pavements

Load and Stress distribution

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 Advantages to Flexible Pavement
 Adjusts to limited differential settlement
 Easily repaired (maintained)
 Additional thickness added any time
 Non-skid properties do not deteriorate
 Quieter and smoother
 Tolerates a greater range of temperatures
Disadvantages to Flexible Pavement
 Loses some flexibility and cohesion with time
 Needs resurfacing sooner than PC concrete
 Not normally chosen where water is expected

Flexible Pavement Typical Applications

*Traffic lanes * Parking areas
*Auxiliary lanes * Frontage roads (access road)
*Ramps * Shoulders
 Generally, two types of construction have been used for
flexible pavements,
i. Conventional flexible pavement and
ii. Full-depth asphalt pavement.
Conventional flexible pavement Full-depth asphalt pavement.
are multilayered structures with are constructed by placing one or
better materials on top where the more layers of hot-mix asphalt
intensity of stress is high and directly on the sub grade or
inferior materials at the bottom improved sub grade.
where the intensity is low. This concept was conceived by
This design principle makes possible the asphalt institute and is generally
to use local materials and usually considered the most cost-effective
results in a most economical design.
and dependable type of asphalt
A conventional pavement normally
pavement for
consists of seal-coat, surface-
Heavy traffic and
course, tack-coat, prime coat, base-
course, sub-base course, compacted
Quite popular in area where local
subgrade, and natural subgrade. materials are not available
 Conventional flexible pavement Flexible pavement
structural part
Surface course: -
The surface course is the top course of an
asphalt pavement,(i.e. sometimes called
Base course
wearing course.
 It is usually constructed by dense graded
hot mix asphalt (HMA).
 It is a structural part of the pavement,
which must be tough to resist distortion
under traffic and provide a smooth and
skid-resistant riding surface.
 The surface must be water proof to protect
the entire pavement and subgrade from the
weakening effect of water.
Base course: - is the layer of material immediately beneath the surface course.
It may be composed of well-graded crushed stone (unbounded), granular mixed with
binder, or stabilized materials.
It is the main structural part of the pavement and provides a level surface for laying the
surface layer.
If constructed over the sub grade, it prevents intrusions if the fine subgrade soils into the
pavement structure
Cont.……………
Sub-base course: -
It is the layer of material beneath the base course constructed
using local and cheaper materials for economic reason on top of
the subgrade.
It provides additional help to the base-course and the upper in
distributing the load.
It facilitates drainage of free water that might get accumulated
below the pavement.
If the base course is open graded, the sub base course with more
fines can serve as a filter between the sub grade and the base
course.
Sub-grade: -
It is the foundation on which the vehicle load and the weight of
the pavement layers finally rest.
It is an in situ or a layer of selected material compacted to the
properly drained desirable and compacted to receive the pavement
layers.
Rigid Pavement
Rigid Pavements
 Are constructed of cement concrete slabs
 A rigid pavement, by virtue of its rigidity, can be able to effect a slab action to
spread the wheel load over the entire slab area.
 The structural capacity of the rigid pavement is largely provided by the slab
itself.
 The effect of subgrade soil properties on the thickness of rigid pavement is
less important than that of flexible pavement.
Cont.……………
Rigid Pavement Typical Applications
 High volume traffic lanes
 Freeway to freeway connections
 Exit ramps with heavy traffic
Advantages of Rigid Pavement
 Good durability
 Long service life
 Withstand repeated flooding and subsurface water without
Deterioration
Disadvantages of Rigid Pavement
 May lose non-skid surface with time
 Needs even sub-grade with uniform settling
 May fault at transverse joints
 It may not be visible at night
 Noisy at night (when vehicles are passing)
Rigid pavements
The subgrade may provide a uniform support for the slab. However
where the sub grade soil cannot provide a uniform support, there is always a
necessity to build a base or Sub base course under cement concrete slab
Main reasons for providing base-course under cement concrete slab are:
 Control of pumping
 Control of frost action (it is not common in Ethiopia)
 Improvement of drainage
 Control of shrinkage and swell
 As working platform for construction
Concrete pavements can be classified in to four types:
 Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP),
 Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement (JRCP),
 Continuous Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP), and Assignment
 Pre-stressed Concrete Pavement (PCP).
Comparison of Rigid and Flexible pavements, The following main differences
between rigid and flexible pavements can be cited.
The manner in which vehicle loads are transmitted to subgrade
Design life and precision (The quality of being reproducible)
Maintenance requirements
Initial cost
Suitability for stage construction
Surface characteristics
Permeability and Traffic dislocation during construction.
 Highway and Airport Pavement
Airport pavements are generally Thicker than highway pavements and
require better surfacing materials due to:
 The gross-weight of an airplane is usually greater than that of a heavy truck, but
the number of load repetitions on airport pavements is usually smaller than that on
highway pavements.
 The arrangement and spacing of wheel loads on airport and highway pavements
are different.
 A typical tire pressure on highway pavements is much lesser than that of airport
pavements
 Vehicle loads are applied near to the edge of highway pavements but far away
from the outside edge of airport pavements.
 Unlike highway pavements, airfield pavements are subjected to an impact loading.
 The design load of airport pavements is the wheel load of the largest aircraft
During takeoff time due to heavy fuel weight. Although wheel loads can be used
as design loads, number of repetitions of standard axles is the commonly used
design parameter for highway pavements.
1.3 Basic Design Factors
Design factors can be divided into four broad categories:
Traffic loading,
Environment,
Materials and
Failure criteria.
Traffic loading
The loading applied by traffic is one of the major factors affecting the design
and performance of pavements.
The most important aspects of traffic loading that are considered in the analysis
and design of pavements are:
The configuration,
Magnitude and
Repetitions of axle loads
 Environment
The environmental factors that influence pavement design include
Temperature and
Precipitation.
Different standards of pavement design consider the effects of these factors
in various ways.
Softens AC in cold weather and
hardens in hot weather
Materials
Pavement materials include soils, aggregates, bituminous binders and cement.
The properties of these materials under traffic loading in a given environmental
conditions is fundamental for the proper design of pavement structures.
Moreover, if economically constructed facilities are to be obtained, locally
available materials are to be used efficiently.
Materials Properties
Stiffness, Poisson Ratio, Strength, Durability
Permeability
Thermal-Volumetric Properties
Types of Material Behavior
Elastic -recoverable,
Plastic -non-recoverable,
Viscous -non-recoverable,
Combination Visco-elastic –recoverable
Performance and Failure Criteria
Pavements are normally designed and constructed to provide, during
the design life, a riding quality acceptable for both private and commercial
vehicles with acceptable maintenance.
Distress Types in Flexible Pavements
* Longitudinal * Transversal crack
 * Fatigue cracking *Block cracking

* De-bonding (adjacent layers of HMA lose adhesion to one another and can become separated)
* Rutting
 * Stripping * Bleeding

* Corrugation & Shoving

* Ravelling (The progressive disintegration of an HMA layer from the surface downward )

* Potholes (potholes are the end result of fatigue cracking. As alligator cracking
becomes severe……………..)
 SOURCE OF PREMATURE PAVEMENT FAILURE

Ma
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Construction Practices
&
Quality Control

Inadequately Designed Pavements Will Fail Prematurely In

spite of Best Quality Control & Construction Practices
Thank you