Lecture 4: Flexible Pavement

Design IRC: 37-2018 Part 1

20 February 2023 1
 Pavements
• A highway pavement is a structure consisting of superimposed layers of processed materials above
the natural soil subgrade.
• Primary function is to distribute the applied vehicle loads to the subgrade.
• Called ‘flexible’ since the total pavement structure bends (or flexes) to accommodate traffic loads.
• 95% of the whole world’s highways are flexible pavement.

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 Flexible Pavement Performance

Pavement
Design

Bituminous
Mix

Bituminous
Binder
Road Design Construction Maintenance
Aggregate

Soil
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Important IRC and MoRTH Guidelines

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Design Factors for Pavements
Design Traffic / Wheel Load
Characteristics

Sub-grade Support/ Strength

Design Factors for Type, Characteristics and Grading of

Pavements Pavement Materials

Climatic and Environmental Factors

Drainage Characteristics

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 Determination of Design Traffic: IRC 37-2018
• The design traffic is estimated in terms of equivalent number of cumulative
standard axles (80 kN single axle with dual wheels).
• For estimating the design traffic, the following information is needed:

✓Initial traffic after construction in terms of commercial vehicle per day (CVPD)

✓Design life in number of years

✓Traffic growth rate during the design life period

✓Spectrum of axle loads (vehicle damage factor)

✓Factors for estimation of the lateral distribution of commercial traffic over the
carriageway

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 Determination of Design Traffic: IRC 37-2018
• Initial Traffic

✓Only the commercial vehicles having gross vehicle weight of 3 tonnes or more are
considered for the structural design of pavements.

✓Estimation of the present day average traffic should be based on the seven-day 24-
hour traffic volume count made in accordance with IRC: 9 (Traffic Census on Non-
Urban Roads).

• Traffic Growth Rate

✓Past trends of traffic growth.

✓Demand elasticity of traffic during the design life period.

✓Minimum annual growth rate of 5 percent.

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 Design Life and Vehicle Damage Factor: IRC 37-2018
• Design Life in Number of Years

✓NH, SH and Urban Roads – 20 years

✓Expressways– 30 years

✓Other roads – 15 years

• Vehicle damage factor (VDF)

✓Need to be worked out from axle load survey

✓Distribution of commercial traffic over the carriageway

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 Axle Configurations and Loads

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 Equivalent Axle Load Factor (EALF): IRC 37-2018
• Defines the damage per pass to a pavement by an axle relative to the damage per
pass of a standard axle.

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 Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF)
▪ A multiplier to convert the given number of commercial vehicles having different
axle configurations and different axle weights into an equivalent number of
standard axle load (80 kN single axle with dual wheels) repetitions.

✓ A1, A2, A3…..are the number of axle types of different axle category.
✓ W1, W2, W3……are axle loads & W1s,W2s, W3s ….. Are the standard loads for that axle type.
✓ V1, V2, V3…..are the number of vehicles.
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 Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF)

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Vehicle Damage Factor

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 Lane Distribution Factor: IRC 37-2018
• Single Lane Roads
✓ Total no. of commercial vehicles in both directions
• Intermediate lane roads of width 5.5 m
✓ 75% of total no. of two- way commercial traffic in both dir
• Two-lane Two-way Roads
✓ 50% of total no. of commercial vehicles in both directions
• Four-lane Single Carriageway Roads
✓ 40% of the total no. of commercial vehicles in both directions
• Dual Carriageway Roads
✓ For dual two-lane: 75% of the no. of commercial vehicles in each direction.
✓ For dual three-lane and four-lane: 60% and 45%, respectively.

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 Computation of Design Traffic: IRC 37-2018

NDes = cumulative number of standard axles to be

catered during the design period of ‘n’ years, in
terms of msa
A = Initial traffic in the year of completion of ✓ P = Number of commercial vehicles
construction in terms of cvpd per day as per last count
D = Lane distribution factor
✓ x = Number of years between the
F = Vehicle damage factor
last count and the year of the
n = Design life in years
completion of construction
r = Annual growth rate of commercial vehicles

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 CBR Value for Strength of Subgrade Soil: IRC 37-2018
• The California Bearing Ratio (CBR) of the subgrade soil should
be determined at the most critical moisture condition likely to
occur at the site. It is recommended that the samples be soaked
in water for four days prior to testing.
• During a rainy day, the soil pores will fill with water. If all soil
pores are filled with water the soil is said to be saturated.
• 90th percentile subgrade CBR value should be adopted for the
design of high volume roads such as Expressways, National
Highways, State Highways and Urban roads.
• For other categories of roads, the design can be done based on
the 80th percentile CBR value if the design traffic is less than 20
msa and based on 90th percentile CBR if the design traffic is 20
msa or more.

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 Resilient Modulus of Subgrade Soil: IRC 37-2018
• The behaviour of the subgrade is essentially elastic under the transient traffic loading with
negligible permanent deformation in a single pass.
• Resilient modulus is the measure of its elastic behaviour determined from recoverable
deformation.
• The relation between resilient modulus and the effective CBR is given as:

Where,
MRS = Resilient modulus of subgrade soil (in MPa)
CBR = California bearing ratio of subgrade soil (%)

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 Effective CBR: IRC 37-2018
• When significant difference between the CBR values • Using the maximum surface deflection (δ),
of the soils used in the subgrade and in the estimate the resilient modulus MRS of the
embankment layer below the subgrade. equivalent single layer.

• In such cases, the design should be based on the

effective modulus/CBR value of a single layer
subgrade which is equivalent to the combination of
the subgrade layer(s) and embankment layer. • Single wheel load = 40,000 N

• Using IITPAVE software, determine the maximum • Contact pressure (p) = 0.56 MPa

surface deflection (δ) for a two or three layer elastic • Poisson’s ratio (μ) = 0.35 for all the layers

system comprising of a single (or two sub-layers) of • Radius of circular contact area (a) = 150.8 mm

the 500 mm thick subgrade layer over the semi-

infinite embankment layer.

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 Example: Effective CBR from IITPAVE
• If the CBR of the soil used in the upper 500 mm of embankment is 8% and the CBR of the borrow soil used
for preparing the 500 mm thick compacted subgrade above embankment is 20%, what is the effective
subgrade Modulus/CBR for design of flexible pavement?
➢ Elastic modulus of the prepared (upper 500 mm) embankment soil = 17.6*(8)0.64 = 66.6 MPa
➢ Elastic modulus of the select borrow material = 17.6*(20)0.64 = 119.7 MPa
➢ Consider a two-layer elastic system consisting of 500 mm of select borrow soil of modulus 119.7 MPa and
the semi-infinite embankment soil of modulus 66.6 MPa

119.7 MPa 500 mm 1.41 mm

66.6 MPa

Semi-infinite 105.10 MPa

layer

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 Pavement Composition: Granular Base & Granular Sub Base
• When both sub-base and the base layers are made up of unbound granular layers, the
composite resilient modulus of the granular base can be estimated using:

Where,
h = Thickness of granular layer (in mm)
MRGRAN = Resilient modulus of the granular layer (in MPa)
MRSUPPORT = Effective resilient modulus of the supporting
layer (in MPa)

▪ Poisson’s ratio of granular bases and sub-bases may be taken as 0.35.

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 Pavement Composition: Bituminous Layer
• For high traffic volume roads with a design traffic of 50 msa or more, (a) Stone Matrix Asphalt
(SMA), (b) Gap Graded mix with rubberized bitumen (GGRB) and (c) Bituminous Concrete (BC)
with modified binders, are recommended for surfacing course for durable, aging resistant and
crack resistant surface courses.
• For roads with design traffic in the range of 20 to 50 msa, BC with VG 40 bitumen is recommended
for the surface course.

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 Resilient Modulus of Bituminous Mixes

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 Design Approach and Criteria: IRC 37-2018

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 Design Approach and Criteria: IRC 37-2018

• The pavement has to be modeled

as a three layer structure and
stresses and strains at critical
locations should be computed
using the linear elastic layer
programme such as IITPAVE
software.

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 Failure Criteria: IRC 37-2018
• Fatigue Cracking
✓Is due to the build up of tensile strain at the bottom
of bituminous concrete layer.
✓Pavement is considered failed if 20% of the surface
has cracked.
• Rutting Failure
✓Is due to the build up of excessive compressive strain
at the top of subgrade layer.
✓Pavement is considered failed if it exhibits a rut
depth of 20 mm.

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 Fatigue Cracking Model: IRC 37-2018

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 Rutting Failure Model: IRC 37-2018

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 Pavement Design Catalogues

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 Different Combination of Pavement Layers

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 Example of Pavement Design
• Compute the design traffic as well as allowable vertical compressive strain on subgrade & the
allowable horizontal tensile strain at the bottom of bituminous layer using the following input data:

a) Four lane divided carriageway

b) Initial traffic in the year of completion of construction = 1800 cvpd (two-way)

c) Traffic growth rate per annum = 6.0 percent

d) Design life period = 20 years

e) Vehicle damage factor = 5.2 (taken to be the same for both directions)

f) Effective CBR of subgrade = 7 %

g) Marshall mix design when carried out on the DBM, to be used in the bottom bituminous layer, for
an air void content of 3 % resulted in an effective bitumen content (by volume) of 11.5 %

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Example of Pavement Design: Solution
(i) Lateral Distribution factor for four lane divided carriageway = 0.75 (for each direction)
(ii) Initial directional traffic = 900 CVPD (assuming 50 per cent in each direction)
(iii) Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF) = 5.2
(iv) Cumulative number of standard axles to be catered for in the design

(v) Effective CBR of subgrade = 7 %

(vi) Effective resilient modulus of Subgrade = 17.6 x (7.0)0.64 = 62 MPa

(vii) Since the design traffic is between 20 to 50 msa, provide a BC with modified bitumen as surface course and
DBM binder/base layer with VG 40

(viii) Select a trial section with 165 mm total bituminous layer (provide 40 mm thick surface layer, 50 mm thick
DBM-II, 75 mm thick bottom rich DBM-I); 250 mm thick granular base (WMM) and 200 mm thick granular
sub-base (GSB). Total thickness of granular layer = 450 mm

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 Example of Pavement Design: Solution
ix. Resilient modulus of the granular layer = 0.2 x (450)0.45x 62 = 193.8 MPa

x. Use 90 % reliability performance models for subgrade rutting and bituminous layer cracking
(design traffic > 20 msa)
(xi) Allowable vertical compressive strain on subgrade for a design traffic of 47 msa and for 90 %
reliability (using below equation) = 0.376 x 10-3

(xii) Allowable horizontal tensile strain at the bottom of bituminous layer for a design traffic of 47 msa, 90 %
reliability, air void content of 3 % and effective binder volume of 11.5 %, and a resilient modulus of
3000 MPa for bottom rich bottom DBM layer (DBM-I) (using below equation) = 0.195 x 10-3 ( M=0.499,
C=3.155)

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 Example: Layer Details
BC E = 3000 MPa, μ = 0.35 40 mm
DBM-II E = 3000 MPa, μ = 0.35 50 mm Bituminous Layer

DBM-I E = 3000 MPa, μ = 0.35 75 mm

Granular Layer E = 193.8 MPa, μ = 0.35 450 mm 155 mm

Subgrade E = 62 MPa, μ = 0.35

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 Strains from IITPAVE

155 mm

0.80 MPa for CTB

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 IITPAVE Output

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 Check for Allowable Strains
▪ Allowable vertical compressive strain on subgrade for a design traffic of 47 msa and for 90 %
reliability = 0.376 x 10-3

From IITPAVE = 0.2961 x 10-3

▪ Allowable horizontal tensile strain at the bottom of bituminous layer for a design traffic of 47
msa, 90 % reliability, air void content of 3 % and effective binder volume of 11.5 %, and a
resilient modulus of 3000 MPa for bottom rich bottom DBM layer (DBM-I) = 0.195 x 10-3 (
M=0.499, C=3.155)

From IITPAVE = 0.1722 x 10-3

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