Details:

Creators:
Santamarina, J. Carlos
Corporate Creators:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Corporate Contributors:
United States. Federal Highway Administration
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Base Course (Pavements) Costs Field Tests Finite Element Method Granular Bases Pavement Maintenance Pavement Performance Stiffness
Publication/ Report Number:
RP 11-28
Resource Type:
Tech Report
Geographical Coverage:
United States
Corporate Publisher:
Georgia. Department of Transportation. Office of Research
Abstract:
The current economic situation has severely affected the US road infrastructure and funding has become

inadequate for either maintenance or future growth.

The inverted base pavement structure is a promising alternative to achieve high quality roads at considerably

lower cost than conventional pavements. The proximity of the unbound granular base layer to the tire load

makes the response of the granular base critical to the performance of the pavement structure. Therefore

extensive material characterization is conducted on the granular materials that make the base. In particular, a

true triaxial chamber is developed to study the mechanical response and the stress-dependent stiffness of

granular bases.

A novel method is developed to assess the as-built stress-dependent anisotropic stiffness of granular bases insitu

using both crosshole and uphole test configurations. The two inverted base pavements built in Georgia at

the Morgan County quarry haul road and the Lagrange south Loop are tested as part of this study.

A nonlinear orthotropic constitutive model is selected to capture the deformational behavior of compacted

granular bases. The response of the pavement is analyzed by implementing this constitutive behavior in a

three-dimensional finite-element model. Different pavement structures are simulated. It is shown that thin

asphalt concrete layers resting directly on granular bases deform as membranes.

Finally, numerical simulations are extended to compare inverted base pavements to conventional pavements

used in practice. Results highlight the inadequacy of ASSHTO’s structural layer coefficient for the analysis of

inverted base pavement structures as well as the potential economic advantages of inverted base pavements


Format:
PDF
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:23ef6533aab739375eb339077253e707748ed600ffc72b7ee993b15503677981
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/28649/dot_28649_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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