CSIR - Central Road Research Institute

Design of Flexible Pavements

(IRC:37-2018)

Dr. Abhishek Mittal

Principal Scientist and Head
Flexible Pavement Division
CSIR – CRRI, New Delhi

07th June, 2023

IAHE Training Program
 Acknowledgements

The contents of this presentation is prepared,

directly and indirectly with the help of several
resources, and only for the purpose of
knowledge dissemination.
 MORTH specs, BIS, IRC codes and manuals
 Various Internet sources for images
 Teachers, Seniors and Colleagues

2
 Types of Pavements

Flexible Pavement Rigid Pavement

(Bituminous / Black Top (Concrete / White Top
Pavement ) Pavement)

3
 India’s Road Network
 6.37 million km of road network, 2nd largest in the world
 Rural roads constitute – 71.3 % of the total road network (as on 31st
March, 2019)

Majority roads are

Bituminous Pavements /
Flexible Pavements
Ref : MORTH Annual Report 2021-22
4
 What is a Pavement ?

A structure consisting of superimposed layers of

processed materials above the natural soil
subgrade, whose primary function is to protect
the natural subgrade and to carry the traffic
safely and economically

5
 What is Pavement Design ?

Design of pavement includes

deciding the number of layers, its
composition and thickness for
selected material, to support traffic
load safely without failure.

6
 Pavement Design Guidelines
• IRC:SP:20-2002 – “Rural Roads Manual”
• IRC:SP:72-2015 – “Guidelines for the Design of Flexible
Pavements for Low Volume Rural Roads”
• IRC:37-2018 – “Guidelines for the Design of Flexible
Pavements” (Fourth Revision)
• IRC:81-1997 – “Guidelines for Strengthening of Flexible
Road Pavements Using Benkelman Beam Deflection
Technique”
• IRC:115-2014 – “Guidelines for Structural Evaluation and
Strengthening of Flexible Road Pavements using Falling
Weight Deflectometer (FWD) Technique ”
• IRC:SP:48-1998 – “Hill Roads Manual”
• IRC:58-2015 and IRC:SP:62-2014 – For concrete pavements
7
Structure of a Flexible Pavement

Aggregates

Bitumen

Source of Aggregates
Source of Bitumen
8
Typical Flexible Pavement Structure

9
Basic Fundamentals in
Design of Flexible Pavements

10
“ .... it is the native soil which
really supports the load ”

John Loudon McAdam

11
Design the pavement thick enough to ensure that
the strength of the subgrade is not exceeded for
the loads to which it will be exposed.
12
When the pavement is too thin, the strength of the
subgrade is exceeded and the pavement
experiences high strain causing it to fatigue and
eventually fail
13
 Pavements are
designed to Fail !!!
Design Traffic / Design Life

14
Love potholes – No design Needed

15
16
Objectives of Pavement Design

To provide a surface that is :

• Strong
• Smooth
• Safe (friction and drainage)
• Economical (initial construction cost and
recurring maintenance cost)

17
Flexible Pavements

A pavement structure of which the surface

course is made of asphalt concrete, that
maintains intimate contact with and distributes
loads to the lower layers (sub-base or subgrade)
and depends upon aggregate interlock, particle
friction, and cohesion for stability

Rigid Pavements
A pavement structure of which the surface
course is made of cement concrete

18
 Load Distribution

The essential difference between Flexible pavement

and Rigid pavement is the manner in which
they distribute the load.

19
 Flexible pavement is one which can adjust its
position to the shape of the underlying layers
without sustaining significant damage.

 Rigid Pavement tend (work as slab) to distribute

the load over a relatively wide area of soil.

20
 Sub-base

Typical Section for a Flexible Pavement

Typical Section for a Rigid Pavement

21
 Structure of a Flexible Pavement

• Multi-layer Structure
– Surface course
– Base course
– Subbase course
– Subgrade

22
Strong layers ‘Shield’ Weaker Materials

23
 Approaches to Pavement Design
• Empirical methods
Performance equations are developed based on experience and
does not involve any structural analysis of the pavement
• Mechanistic Empirical (M-E) methods
Estimation of critical stress-strain parameters obtained from
structural analysis of pavement and calibrated based on the field
performance
(IRC:37-2018 is a M-E design approach)
• Theoretical methods
Theoretical methods based on the theoretical analysis and
mathematical computations (a distant dream)

24
 Evolution of Pavement Design Process

A Distant
Dream
Present
Early 1980s 1990s Knowledge

Purely
Mechanistic
Methods

Empirical M-E Improved

Methods Methods M-E
Methods

25
 Pavement Design Factors

• Traffic and loading

• Environmental Factors
• Material Characteristics
• Failure Criteria

26
 Traffic and Loading

• Axle loads
• Repetitions of load
• Contact Area
• Vehicle Speeds

27
 Axle Configurations
The axle configuration is important to know the way
in which the load is applied on the pavement surface

28
29
30
31
32
33
 Standard Axle

Single axle with dual wheels carrying a load of

80 kN (8 tonnes) is defined as standard axle

34
 Repetitions of Axle loads

• The damage caused by each axle depends on

its load, configuration and repetitions
• It is possible to evaluate the damage caused
by the repetitions of each axle load group
• Instead of analyzing each axle load group
separately, they can be converted into
equivalent repetitions of a standard axle
using equivalent axle load factors

35
 Contact Area
• The size of contact area depends on contact
pressure
• The true shape of contact area is elliptical
• In the analysis of flexible pavements,
however, it is approximated to circular shape
for the ease of calculations
• Thus, the radius of contact area (a) for a
wheel load ‘P’ and contact pressure ‘p’ can be
found as :

36
Relationship between contact pressure
and tyre pressure

37
Relationship between contact pressure
and tyre pressure ...contd.

• For pavement design, the contact pressure is

generally assumed to be equal to the tyre
pressure
• Also, it is assumed that the contact pressure
is uniformly distributed throughout the
contact area
• As heavier axle loads have higher tyre
pressures and more destructive effects on
pavements, the use of tyre pressure as the
contact pressure is therefore on the safe side
38
 Vehicle Speeds
• Speed of vehicles is directly related to the
duration of loading on viscoelastic layers
• For elastic layers, the resilient modulus of
each layer should be selected based on
vehicle speed
• Greater the speed, the larger the modulus and
the smaller the strains in the pavement

39
 Environment and Moisture Variations

• Temperature
 wide temperature variations may cause
damaging effects
 affects properties of asphalt layer
 pavement becomes soft in hot weather
and brittle in cold weather
• Moisture variations
 affects granular layers and subgrade
 proper drainage should be available
 freezing and thawing weakens the layers
40
Assumptions in Multi layered elastic theory

• The material properties of each layer are homogeneous

• Each layer has a finite thickness, except for the lower
layer and all are finite in lateral directions
• Each layer is isotropic, i.e., the property at any specific
point is the same in every direction or orientation
• Full friction is developed between layers at each
interface
• Surface shearing forces are not present at the surface
• The stress solutions are characterized by two material
properties for each layer (elastic modulus and Poisson’s
ratio)

41
Guidelines for the Design of
Flexible Pavements
(Fourth Revision)

IRC:37-2018

42
 IRC : 37 – Over the years
1970 – First Published

 Based on CBR of subgrade and traffic in terms of commercial

vehicles

1984 – 1st Revision

 Concept of ESAL of 80 kN was introduced for estimating

design traffic in millions of standard axles (msa)
 Design charts were provided upto 30 msa using empirical
approach

43
 IRC : 37 – Over the years …Contd.

2001 – 2nd Revision

 Used ME approach based on MORTH research scheme R-56

 Multilayer elastic theory was adopted for stress analysis
 Software program FPAVE was developed for analysis of
flexible pavements
 Development of fatigue and rutting criteria from field
performance data

44
 IRC : 37 – Over the years …Contd.

2012 – 3rd Revision

 VG-40 bitumen was introduced for higher traffic

 Alternate materials including cementitious and RAP included
 Pavement analysis using software IITPAVE
 Concept of perpetual pavements
 Cumulative Fatigue Damage for cementitious layers introduced

45
 IRC : 37 – Over the years …Contd.

2018 – 4th Revision

 Estimation of effective resilient modulus for subgrade

 Design approach for stage construction
 Revised indicative values for VDF

46
Pavements should be so designed and constructed
that they :
1. Have Long Life
2. Are Economical
3. Are Sustainable (use of recycled, waste, marginal
materials, less emissions etc.)

47
 Why switch from 2001 to 2012 code

• Higher rutting in Bituminous layers was observed for

pavements designed using this

• Rutting is supposed to be taken care of by mix design as per

IRC:37-2001

• Recommendation for VG 30 or 60/70 binder was Ok in 2001,

but not now

• Heavy traffic has increased manifold. IRC:37-2001 doesn’t

have design charts for traffic more than 150 msa

• Difficult to incorporate new and innovative materials in the

pavement design
48
 From 2012 to IRC:37-2018

• Based on the feedback received on the performance of

bituminous pavements in general and that of bituminous
layers in particular

• Different provisions of IRC:37-2012 have been fine-tuned

based on the feedback

49
 Scope of the Guidelines
• Applicable for the design of new flexible pavements and
reconstruction of damaged pavements for roads with a design
traffic of 2 msa or more.

• For design traffic < 2 msa, IRC:SP:72-2015 is adopted.

• For overlay design, IRC:81-1997 or IRC:115-2014 is

adopted.

50
Design Approach

51
 Traffic
• Determine Initial Traffic in terms of CVPD
• Traffic Growth Rate during design life (%)
• Design Life (in Years)
• Axle load spectrum
• Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF)
•Distribution of commercial traffic over the carriageway

52
 Traffic Growth Rate
• The past trends of traffic growth
• Based on Demand Elasticity of traffic w.r.t. macro- economic
parameters (like GDP/SDP) and expected demand due to
specific developments and land use changes likely to take place
during the design life
• Where no traffic count data is available, data from roads of
similar classification and importance may be used to predict the
design traffic.
Traffic growth rates shall be established for each category
of commercial vehicles.
If such data is not available for commercial vehicles or if it is
less than 5 percent, a growth rate of 5 % should be used.
53
 Design Period
• It is the cumulative number of standard axles in msa that can be
carried before a major strengthening, rehabilitation, capacity
augmentation of the pavement is necessary.

 20 years for NH, SH and urban roads

 30 years for Expressways / high density corridors (traffic
> 300 msa)
 15 years for other categories of roads
• For stage construction, thickness of granular layer should be
provided for the full design period.
• In case of cemented bases and sub-bases, stage construction is not
recommended, since it may lead to early failure due to high flexural
stresses in the cemented layer.

54
 Traffic Estimation for Stage Construction

• If designing in two stages : Stage 1 and Stage 2

• Estimated Stage 1 traffic = 1.67 * design traffic for
Stage 1
(considering that the pavement will have at least 40 %
life remaining after Stage 1 period)
• Requirement of Stage 2 pavement shall be
determined after evaluation of structural condition of
the pavement

55
 AASHO Road Test 1958-60
• US faced a huge need for an adequate
pavement design procedure in late
1950’s.

• AASHO primary purpose was to

determine the relationship between axle
loading and pavement structure on
pavement performance .

• Use to design pavements to provide an

engineering basis for establishing
maximum axle load limits, and to provide
a basis for the allocation of highway user
taxation.
56
 Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF)
• It is multiplier to convert the number of commercial vehicles
of different axle loads and axle configuration into the number
of repetitions of standard axle load of magnitude 80 kN.
• It is defined as equivalent number of standard axles per
commercial vehicle.
• The VDF varies with the vehicle axle configuration and axle
loading.
• 4th Power law (from AASHO road test) is used for calculating
the VDF values.
• The computed VDF values are assumed to be same for
bituminous pavements with cemented and granular bases.

57
 Equations for Computation of VDF
4
 axle load in kN 
Single axle with single wheel on either side =  
 65 
4
 axle load in kN 
Single axle with dual wheels on either side =  
 80 
4

Tandem axle with dual wheels on either side = 
axle load in kN 

 148 
4
 axle load in kN 
Tridem axle with dual wheels on either side =  
 224 

58
Example on VDF

59
60
 Computation of VDF ...contd.

• For Tandem axles with Single wheel on each side

- Consider as two separate Single axles with Single
wheel

• For Tridem axles with Single wheel on each side

- Consider as three separate Single axles with Single
wheel

61
 Axle load Survey

• Should be carried out without any bias for loaded and

unloaded vehicles.
• If there is significant difference in axle loading in two
directions of traffic, VDF should be evaluated direction
wise.
Sample size for Axle load Survey
Total number of Minimum Percentage of Commercial
CVPD Traffic to be Surveyed

< 3000 20 %

3000 to 6000 15 % (minimum 600 CVPD)

> 6000 10 % (minimum 900 CVPD)

62
 Indicative VDF Values

Initial Traffic in terms Rolling / Plain Terrain Hilly Terrain

of CVPD

0 to 150 1.7 0.6

150 to 1500 3.9 1.7
> 1500 5.0 2.8

63
Traffic Studies

64
Vehicle Damage Factor Measurement

Over Loaded Vehicle

Weigh Pad
65
Overloading of trucks cause severe damage to roads
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
VDF Formula

74
 Sample VDF Data

1 Ton = 9.8067 kN
75
Sample VDF Data

76
Summary of Axle load Survey

77
78
79
Different Axle
Configurations

80
81
 Lane Distribution Factor
This provides lateral distribution of commercial traffic on the
carriageway for estimating the design traffic. For single
carriageway, total traffic in both directions is considered. For
dual carriageway, directional traffic is considered.
• Single lane road = 1.0
• Intermediate lane roads (width 5.5 m) = 0.75
• Two lane single carriageway road = 0.50
• Four lane single carriageway road = 0.40
• Two lane dual carriageway road = 0.75
• Three lane dual carriageway road = 0.60
• Four lane dual carriageway road = 0.45
82
Two lane dual carriageway 0.75 of each direction

83
•For single carriageway (undivided) roads,
pavement thickness should be same for both the
lanes even if VDF values are different in different
directions and designed for higher VDF.

•For divided carriageways, each direction may

have different thickness of pavements if the axle
load patterns are significantly different.

84
 Computation of Design Traffic

N

365  1  r   1
n

 A D  F
r
Where,
N = Cumulative number of standard axles to be catered for in the
design in terms of msa
A = Initial traffic in the year of completion of construction in terms of
CVPD
D = Lane distribution factor
F = Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF)
n = Design period (in years)
r = Annual growth rate of commercial vehicles in decimal (eg., for 5
percent annual growth rate, r = 0.05). Variation of growth rate over
different periods of design to be considered.

85
The traffic in the year of completion is estimated as :

A = P (1 + r)x

Where,

P = Number of commercial vehicles as per last count

x = Number of years between the last count and the year of
completion of construction

86
Design Traffic Calculations – An example

Traffic Growth Rate Data

Period Bus LCV 2 Axle 3 Axle MAV
2011 - 2016 5.18% 7.50% 7.50% 7.50% 7.50%
2017 -2022 5.03% 7.16% 7.16% 7.16% 7.16%
2023 - 2028 4.77% 6.99% 6.99% 6.99% 6.99%
2029 & Beyond 4.52% 6.81% 6.81% 6.81% 6.81%

AADT in year 2011

Section A Bus LCV 2 Axle 3 Axle MAV CVPD
Km 100/200 261 422 626 1805 652 3766

VDF
Section A Bus LCV 2 Axle 3 Axle MAV
Km 100/200 0.26 0.54 3.29 5.24 5.62
LDF = 0.75
87
Design Traffic Calculations – An example ...contd.
Year Bus LCV 2 Axle 3 Axle MAV Yearly design Cumulative Remarks
ESAL Design ESAL
2011 261 422 626 1805 652 4237026 Design and
2012 274 454 673 1940 701 4554338 Construction Period
2013 288 488 723 2086 753 4895426
2014 302 524 778 2242 810 5262071 5262071 Opened to Traffic
2015 317 564 836 2411 871 5656189 10918260
2016 333 606 899 2591 936 6079838 16998098
2017 350 649 963 2777 1003 6514643 23512741
2018 367 696 1032 2976 1075 6980553 30493294 30.50 msa 5 Years
2019 386 746 1106 3189 1152 7479796 37973090
2020 405 799 1185 3417 1234 8014757 45987847
2021 425 856 1270 3662 1323 8587991 54575838
2022 446 917 1361 3924 1417 9202238 63778076
2023 469 982 1456 4198 1516 9844842 73622918 73.63 msa 10 years
2024 492 1050 1558 4492 1622 10532332 84155250
2025 517 1124 1667 4806 1736 11267845 95423095
2026 543 1202 1783 5141 1857 12054736 107477831
2027 570 1286 1908 5501 1987 12896593 120374424
2028 598 1376 2041 5885 2126 13797258 134171682
2029 628 1470 2180 6286 2271 14736081 148907763
2030 660 1570 2329 6714 2425 15738799 164646562

88
 Subgrade

• Top 500 mm of the embankment immediately below the

bottom of the pavement is called subgrade. It forms the
foundation of the pavement.
• Made up of in-situ material, select soil or stabilized soil.
• Should be well compacted to limit the scope of rutting in
pavement due to additional densification during the service life
of the pavement.
• Should be compacted to 97 % of lab dry density (heavy
compaction) for Expressways, NH, SH, MDR and other heavily
trafficked roads.
89
 CBR testing
• CBR measures the strength of the subgrade.
• CBR testing done at the most critical moisture conditions likely to occur at
the site. In general, soaking the specimens in water for 96 hours (4 days)
represents the worst moisture condition.
• CBR test is always performed on remoulded samples of soils in the lab.
• When different types of soils are used in subgrade, a minimum of six to
eight average CBR values (average of three tests) for each soil type along the
alignment will be required for determination of design CBR.

• For high volume roads (such as expressways, NH, SH)

• 90th percentile of average CBR values are used as design CBR (means
that 90 % of the average CBR values are equal or greater than the
design value)
• For other categories of roads
• 80th percentile of laboratory CBR values are used as design CBR.

90
 Determination of Resilient Modulus

• The relation between resilient modulus and the effective CBR is given
as :

MR (MPa) = 10 * CBR for CBR  5

= 17.6 * (CBR)0.64 for CBR > 5

Where,
MR = resilient modulus of subgrade soil
CBR = effective CBR of subgrade soil

91
 Effective Modulus / CBR for Design

• From IITPAVE, find max. surface deflection () for a single wheel load (40 kN)
for a two layer system.
• Calculate MRS of the equivalent single layer :

M RS 

2 1   pa 2


• For design purpose, max. value of MRS shall be limited to 100 MPa.
• The effective subgrade CBR > 5 % for roads with more than 450 CVPD (two-way)
in the year of construction.
• If borrow material is placed over rocky foundation, the effective CBR may be
larger than CBR of borrow material; so take CBR of borrow material for design
purpose.
92
 Sub-base layer
• May be unbound / granular or bound / cementitious layer

Unbound Sub-base layer

• May consist of natural sand, moorum, gravel, laterite, kankar, brick metal,
crushed stone, crushed slag, reclaimed crushed concrete, reclaimed
asphalt pavement or combinations thereof meeting the prescribed
grading and physical requirements as per MORTH

• For material passing 425 micron sieve

LL  25 and PI  6

• The sub-base should be composed of two layers, the lower layer forms
the separation/filter layer to prevent intrusion of subgrade soil into the
pavement and the upper layer forms the drainage layer to drain away any
water that may enter through surface cracks.

93
 Resilient Modulus of Sub-base

• MR gsb = 0.2 * h0.45 * MR subgrade

Where, h = thickness of sub-base layer in mm

MR value of the sub-base is dependent upon the MR value of the

subgrade since a weaker subgrade does not permit higher modulus
of the upper layer because of deformation under loads.

94
Bound Sub-base layer
• May consist of soil, aggregate or soil-aggregate mixture modified with chemical
stabilizers such as cement, lime, flyash or commercially available stabilizers.

Strength Parameter
• Elastic modulus of bound sub-base layer is determined from UCS.
• Ec sub = 1000 * UCS

Where, UCS = 28 day strength of the cementitious granular material

• If 7-day UCS is 1.5 to 3 MPa, design value to be used = 600 MPa

• If 7-day UCS is 0.75 to 1.5 MPa, design value to be used = 400 MPa
• Poisson’s ratio = 0.25

• Since the sub-base acts as a platform for the heavy construction traffic, low
strength cemented sub-base is expected to crack during the construction.

95
 Base layer
Unbound base layer
• May consist of WMM, WBM, CRM, reclaimed concrete etc.
• MR granular = 0.2 * h0.45 * MR subgrade

• Poisson’s ratio of granular bases and sub-bases = 0.35

• For granular base over CTSB
• Resilient modulus = 300 MPa (natural gravel)
• Resilient modulus = 350 MPa (crushed rock)

Cementitious Bases
• May consist of aggregates or soils or both stabilized with chemical
stabilizers such as cement, lime, lime-flyash or other stabilizers.
• For cement, 7 day strength = 4.5 to 7 MPa
• For lime, lime-flyash stabilized granular materials and soils, 28 day
strength = 4.5 to 7 MPa
• For design purpose, modulus value = 5000 MPa
96
 Pavement Design Principle
• A flexible pavement is modelled as an elastic multilayer structure.
• The stresses and strains at critical locations are computed using linear layered
elastic model.

97
 Failure Criteria

Fatigue failure criteria

Cracking (appearing as
interconnected cracks) in 20
percent or more of paved
area

Rutting failure criteria

Maximum 20 mm rutting
or more, measured along
the wheel paths

98
 Reliability

• For Expressways, NH, SH and urban roads = 90 %

reliability level
• For other categories of roads :
• 90 % reliability – if traffic > 20 msa
• 80 % reliability – if traffic < 20 msa

99
Critical Strain Locations - 1

100
Critical Strain Locations - 2

101
Critical Strain Locations - 3

102
Critical Strain Locations - 4

103
Critical Strain Locations - 5

104
Critical Strain Locations - 6

105
 Fatigue Equations
3.89 0.854
 04 1  1  (for 80 %
N f  1.6064  C  10    
 t 
reliability)
MR 
3.89 0.854
 04 1  1  (for 90 %
N f  0.5161  C  10     reliability)
 t  MR 
 Vb 
C  10 , M  4.84 
M
 0.69 
 Va  Vb 
Where,
Va = air voids, Vb = Volume of bitumen
Nf = Fatigue life in number of standard axles
t = Maximum tensile strain at the bottom of the bituminous layer,
and MR = Resilient modulus of the bituminous layer
106
 Rutting Equations
4.5337
08 1
N r  4.1656  10    (for 80 % reliability)

v 

4.5337
08 1
N r  1.41  10    (for 90 % reliability)

v 

Where,
Nr = Rutting life in number of cumulative standard axles
v = Maximum vertical strain in the subgrade
Above equations guard against rutting in granular
layer and the subgrade only
107
• Rutting in bituminous layers also occurs due to the secondary
compaction and shear deformation apart from that in the
subgrade.
• The guidelines recommend the use of rut resistant bituminous
mixes using higher viscosity grade bitumen / modified bitumen.

108
 Resilient modulus of Bituminous Mixes

Note : Resilient modulus at 35 C as per ASTM D 4123. For snow bound areas,
testing shall be done at 20 C.

109
Empirical equations of estimation of Resilient
Modulus

(1) Resilient Modulus of 150 mm diameter DBM specimens at

35 C
MR = 11.088 * ITS - 3015.80

(2) Resilient Modulus of 102 mm diameter specimens with

elastomeric PMB mixes at 35 C
MR = 1.1991 * ITS + 1170
Where,
ITS = Indirect Tensile Strength (kPa)
MR = Resilient Modulus (MPa)

110
 Bituminous layer options

NOTE :
(1) For expressways and NH, even if design traffic < 20 msa, use VG-40 / modified
bitumen in surface course and VG-40 bitumen in DBM
(2) VG-10 bitumen shall be used in snow bound areas
(3) For BC thickness < 40 mm, use VG-30 bitumen (even if from temp considerations,
VG-40 is adequate)
(4) Mastic asphalt can also be used for roads in high rainfall areas and junction
locations
111
 Cementitious Layers

• Cementitious materials normally crack due to shrinkage and

temperature changes even without pavement being loaded.

• The E value recommended for design is much lower than their

respective laboratory value obtained from UCS test.

• For such layers, the following is to be checked :

• Fatigue cracking in cementitious layers
• Cumulative Damage analysis for fatigue

112
 Fatigue Cracking in Cementitious Layers

12
  113000  
  E 0.804  191 
N  RF     
 t 
 
Where,
N = fatigue life of the cementitious material
RF = Reliability factor for cementitious materials for failure against
fatigue
= 1 for Expressways, NH, SH, urban roads and other roads if design
traffic > 10 msa
= 2 for other cases
E = Elastic modulus of cementitious material (MPa)
t = tensile strain in the cementitious layer (in microstrain)
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Cumulative Damage Analysis for Fatigue

 t 
0.972   
M 
Log N fi   Rup 

0.0825
Where,
Nfi = fatigue life in terms of cumulative number of axle load of class i
t = tensile stress under cementitious base layer
MRup = 28 day flexural strength of the cementitious base

The fatigue criterion is considered satisfied if CFD =  (ni/Nfi) < 1

Where ni = actual number of axles of axle load of class i (during the
design period)

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 Perpetual / Long - Life Pavements

• Pavements with design life > 50 years are termed as perpetual

pavements.

• Tensile strain caused by traffic in the bituminous layer < 80

microstrains - the bituminous layer never cracks

• Vertical subgrade strain < 200 microstrains – there will be no rutting

in the subgrade

• Different layers are so designed and constructed that only the

surface layer would need replacement from time to time.

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 Pavement Design Steps
(a) Select a trial composition
(b) Bituminous mix design parameters and mix resilient
modulus
(c) Select trial thicknesses
(d) Perform structural analysis using IITPAVE
(e) Compute allowable strains for fatigue and rutting using
the performance models
(f) Compare calculated values with allowable values
(f) Perform Iterations, if needed
(g) Check for CFD (only for cementitious layers)

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 Example – Estimation of Effective
Subgrade Modulus / CBR
Problem : CBR of top 500mm of embankment = 8 %
CBR of borrow soil used for subgrade = 20 %
Find effective subgrade CBR for design ?

Solution :

Effective modulus value = 100 MPa

Corresponding CBR = 15.1 %

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 Miner’s Rule

• Damage caused by repeated application of axle loads on a

pavements is referred as fatigue damage of pavements.
• Miner’s rule is used to calculate cumulative fatigue and
damage caused due to repetition of different axle load
groups

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 Miner’s Rule ...contd.

• If a pavement is subjected to nj number of repeated

uniform loads having load level j, then at each level
of load application, its theoretical fatigue life is Nj
number of repetitions.

• The intensity of damage for one repetition

1
Dj 
Nj

• The damage after nj number of repetitions

nj  Dj
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 Miner’s Rule ...contd.

• If 100 % damage occurs after total number of

repetitions, the cumulative damage will be
 n1 n2 n3 nj 
 n j D j    N  N  N  ....  N   1.0
 1 2 3 j 

• Miner’s fatigue damage rule is used when the fatigue
damage caused by individual load groups are
considered for design of pavements.

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 Why Cumulative Fatigue Damage (CFD)
Analysis for cemented layers

Since there are plenty of single, tandem and tridem

axle loads which are far higher than standard axle load
used for pavement design, thickness of cement layer
must be checked for sudden fracture of the brittle
material like cemented base / sub-base due to higher
axle loads using Cumulative Damage Principle.

One Tandem axle is taken as two single axles and one

Tridem axle is taken as three single axles.

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 Calculations for CFD Analysis
Available Data

Effective CBR of subgrade = 7 %

Design resilient modulus of subgrade = 62 MPa ( = 0.35)

Thickness composition and material properties

(a) Thickness of bituminous layer (BC + DBM) = 100 mm
(VG-40, MR = 3000 MPa,  = 0.35)
(b) Aggregate Interlayer = 100 mm
(MR = 450 MPa,  = 0.35 )
(c) Cemented Base = 120 mm (MR = 5000 MPa,  = 0.25)
(d) Cemented Sub-base = 250 mm (MR = 600 MPa,  = 0.25)

MR of Cemented Base = 1.4 MPa

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Axle load spectrum data for CFD analysis

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 Cumulative Fatigue Analysis for Single Axle

Fatigue life consumed = expected repetitions / fatigue life

corresponding to that axle
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Cumulative Fatigue Analysis for Tandem Axle

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Cumulative Fatigue Analysis for Tridem Axle

CFD = 0.48 + 3.79 + 1.02 = 5.29 > 1.0 , UNSAFE

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Good Design, Construction Practices and Good
Quality Control can save our Country’s Roads
 THANKS

Dr. Abhishek Mittal

Principal Scientist and Head, Flexible Pavement Division
CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi
Contact :
Mobile : 9873016469
Email : [email protected]
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