Professional Documents
Culture Documents
955-973:
Flexible pavement design, ESAL
(Objectives)
Know the structural components of
a flexible pavement
Learn the types of soil stabilization
methods (from reading)
Learn the general principles of
flexible pavement design
Know how to estimate equivalent
single axle load
Pavement types
Flexible Pavement
Rigid Pavement
(Portland Cement)
AC surface
(3 to 6 in)
Granular base
(Base course)
Subbase
Subgrade
PC surface
(6 to 12 in)
Base course
Subgrade
Structural components of a
flexible pavement
Asphalt concrete surface: Mixture of mineral
aggregates and asphaltic materials. 3 to 6
depending on the expected traffic on the pavement.
Granular base (Base course): Usually granular
materials such as crushed stone, crushed or
uncrushed slag, crushed or uncrushed gravel, and
sand.
Subbase: Located immediately above the subgrade. Material of a superior
quality than the subgrade. If necessary, it may be stabilized.
Subgrade: Usually the natural material located along the horizontal
alignment of the pavement and serves as the foundation of the pavement
structure. May be a layer of selected borrowed materials, well compacted.
Remember once loosened, soil must be compacted to reduce voids.
Typical assumptions:
Multilayered elastic system
Subbase, base course, AC surface
is infinite in the horizontal direction
Subgrade is infinite in the vertical
and horizontal direction
Obviously the traffic mix (cars, buses, SU trucks, semis, etc.) must be
known because their gross axle loads are different. Vehicle
classification counts are needed. Also needed is axle load data the
reason for having truck weighing stations on major highways.
truck _ factor
number _ of _ vehicles
Table 20.5 gives truck factors, that is, they were computed
based on previous research data. Remember this formula as
the definition of the truck factor. You may not actually
compute it unless you are determining typical truck factors
for your study area. Problem 20-4 let you use this formula.
Example: For rural interstates, one single truck is considered to have 0.52 ESAL. Count
the total number of trucks and multiply it by 0.52 to find total ESAL for that section.
fd
Design lane factor: Pavement design
is done for the highest loading case
(design lane). Typically the outer lane
is subject to the highest loading.
G jt
Growth factor for a given growth
rate j and design period t
Note that AADT used here is the total for both directions.
ESAL ESALi
i 1
2-axle SU trucks = 0.40 x 29.78 x 12000 x 0.33 x 365 x 2 x 0.01043 = 0.3592 x 106
3-axle SU trucks = 0.40 x 29.78 x 12000 x 0.17 x 365 x 3 x 0.0877 = 2.3336 x 106
n
ESAL ESALi
i 1
Example 20-2
Given:
2-lane major rural collector
AADT = 3000 (both directions)