Revision of the South African Pavement
Design Method
Louw Kannemeyer
Aka GODZILLA
Slide 2
Historical overview – SAMDM development
• Origin of Current SAMDM – Damage Models
• Fatigue of asphalt concrete wearing courses
• Freeme – 1970s
• Fatigue of asphalt concrete base layers including temperature
• Published data – 1970s to 1980s
• FoS permanent deformation for unbound material
• Maree – 1970s to 1980s
• Effective fatigue and crushing failure for cement stabilized layers
• de Beer – 1980s
• Vertical strain criteria for subgrade
• Dorman and Metcalf – 1965
New Tire Technology
Increased Tire Pressure
Slide 3
SAMDM - Current status
• Past implementation exposed all the weaknesses of the
method
• Users became disillusioned with the method
• Counter-intuitive and inadmissible results
• Extreme sensitivity of the method to input
• Inconsistent input
• Resilient response (FWD, MDD, Laboratory)
• Strength parameters
• Statements made that ME-design is not possible
• Too many unexplained effects (chaos)
• Design can only be based on past performance (LTPP, rehabilitation
investigation, etc.)
Slide 4
R&D Dream #1: Close Gap Between Reality and Theory
Reality Theory
Rut
Terminal rut
Roughness
Terminal IRI
Extent of fatigue
Time
Slide 5
Adjust the Theory to Predict Reality
R&D Dream #2: Levelling the Playing Field
10
7
Level of Development
0
Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 4 Area 5 Area 6 Area 7 Area 8 Area 9 Area 10
Slide 6
Overall system just as good as Weakest Link
R&D Dream #3: Single “Tool” – Different User/Risk Levels
User Design application
Young Design scenario:
• Routine and preliminary design
professional • Low risk
• Low design experience
• Known materials – default input
• Conventional material classification
Design scenario:
• Important design
Seasoned • Medium risk
professional • Seasoned professional designer
• Project specific input
Design scenario:
Design • Very important design, high risk
Specialist • Special investigations
• Specialist designer
• Unusual materials
• Project specific input
Slide 7
Research and Development (R&D) Framework
• Pavement Design Task Group
• Established May 2005
• Series of meetings during July and August 2005
• R&D framework submitted in November 2005
• Characteristics of new pavement design method
• R&D topics
• Demand analysis (Traffic and environment)
• Material resilient response models
• Pavement resilient response models
• Damage models
• Probabilistic and recursive schemes
• Each R&D topic have a number of identified R&D needs
• Each R&D need translated into one or more project briefs to address the need
– November 2006
Slide 8
Project Objectives
• Overall objective
• To develop a design method that is
• Accurate (agree with reality)
• Impartial in terms of pavement type selection
• Unbound (Crushed stone, natural gravel)
• Stabilised (Cement, Foamed-bitumen, Emulsified-bitumen)
• HMA
• Concrete (not included in flexible pavement design R&D process)
• Project structured according to immediate, short, medium
and long-term objectives and deliverables
• Achievement of immediate, short, medium and long-term objectives
subject to availability of resources
Slide 9
Time-frame for R&D process
Immediate 12 to 18 months
3 to 5 years
Short-term
(1.5 to 3 years)
5 to 8 years
Medium-term
(3 to 5 years)
8 to 12 years
Long-term
>5 Years
Slide 10
R&D Process
• Project funding and contracts
• Funding organisations will sponsor projects of interest to them
• Contract between service provider and project client
• Project management
• Phase 1 – Develop Detailed Project Briefs - Done
• Phase 2 - Inception Phase (In Progress – 27th June 2007)
• Investigate available solutions
• Finalize project methodology
• Finalize cost and resource allocation
• Phase 3 – Delivery of immediate, short, medium deliverables
(Anticipated Start Date – November 2007)
Slide 11
R&D Process (continued)
• Overarching integration level project
• Integration of output from various ME-design related projects
• Integration of performance based information system with ME-
design components in a single design method
• Delivery mechanisms
• Website for tracking progress on R&D process and sharing general
information
• Any content (documents and software) developed as part of the
project available for use on the project website
• Immediate, short, medium and long-term output
• User-manual with an overview of the method
• Detail technical documents on individual components
• Technical guidelines, test protocols and method specifications
Slide 12
Input layers
Geometry
Axle load Fixed
Computer
solution
Traffic histogram load
Damage models
data Contact stress Fixed
histogram contact stress
Thermal cracking
Resilient
response models Fatigue
HMA
Grading Plastic strain/
Mr = Constant permanent deformation
Binder
content Top-down cracking
Binder
HMA
properties Plastic strain/
Unbound
Mr = f (Temp) permanent deformation
Temperature
Other
Resilient
Structural
Other response
Crushing capacity
Mr = f (Dens, analysis
estimate
saturation)
Grading
Stabilized
Stiffness reduction
Material data
Atterberg Plastic strain/
Mr = f (Bulk
limits permanent deformation
and shear
Unbound
Moisture stress)
Other
content
Plastic strain/
Subgrade
Density
permanent deformation
Mr = f (Strain)
Other Other
UCS Linear
visco-elastic
Stress and
Stabilized
strain at break
Time/previous
loading Other?
Other
PB/2006/E-1 and PB/2006/E-2
Geometry
PB/2006/A-2
Computer
solution
PB/2006/A-3 Damage models
PB/2006/A-4
PB/2006/A-1
Resilient PB/2006/C-1
response models
HMA
PB/2006/D-1
Grading
Binder
content PB/2006/B-1b
Binder
HMA
properties
Unbound
PB/2006/C-3
PB/2006/D-2
PB/2006/B-4
Temperature PB/2006/B-2 and PB/2006/B-3
Other? PB/2006/E-3
Stabilized
Grading
PB/2006/C-4
PB/2006/B-4
PB/2006/D-3
Atterberg
PB/2006/B-1a
limits
Unbound
Moisture
content
Subgrade
Density
PB/2006/C-5 PB/2006/D-2
Other?
UCS
PB/2006/B-1c
Stress and
Stabilized
strain at break
Time/previous PB/2006/C-2
loading
Other?
Immediate Short-term Medium-term
PB/2006/ILP Integration level project
PB/2006/A-1 Tyre loading and contact stress information system
Information system shell Ongoing population of
with available data information system
PB/2006/A-2 Traffic volume and axle load information system
Information system shell with available data: Ongoing population of Dynamic error adjustment
•Data filters information system
•Bias adjustment
•Random (dynamic effect) error adjustment
PB/2006/A-3 Traffic survey and design traffic calculation guidelines
A contact stress and traffic Guidelines and method specs for Revision of guidelines and
survey strategy for southern Africa contact stress and traffic surveys method specifications`
TMH 8 & TRH 16
Training material
PB/2006/A-4 Effects of vehicle dynamics on traffic input for pavement design
Forward modelling of dynamic Backward modelling of static
axle load spectra axle load spectra
PB/2006/C-1
Slide 15
Immediate Short-term Medium-term
PB/2006/ILP Integration level project
PB/2006/B-1a Resilient response models for unbound material
Static model = f (D, MC, σ) Ongoing model calibration
Dynamic model = f (D, MC, σ) Link to engineering parameters
Test protocols and model calibration Long-term changes
procedures
PB/2006/B-1b Resilient response models for HMA material
Static model = f (T, mix) Ongoing model calibration
Dynamic model = f (T, mix) Long-term changes
Test protocols and model calibration Link to engineering parameters
procedures Resilient response master curves
PB/2006/B-1c Resilient response models for stabilised material
Tri-axial or flexural testing? Ongoing model calibration
Static model = f (mix) Long-term changes
Dynamic model = f (mix) Link to engineering parameters
Test protocols and model calibration
procedures
PB/2006/B-2 Agreement between resilient modulus results from different tests
Guidelines for deflection bowl utilisation Static and dynamic back-calculation
Fundamental principles of different tests Agreement between test methods
PB/2006/B-3 Material testing, interpretation of results and deriving design input
Guidelines
PB/2006/B-4 A design input information system for road-building materials
Updated refusal density models Calibrated models for an
Calibrated resilient response models extended range of materials
Slide 16 PB/2006/C-3
Immediate Short-term Medium-term
PB/2006/ILP Integration level project
PB/2006/C-1 Improved modelling of non-uniform contact stress distribution
Closed form solution for circular, Finite element (FE) solution for
non-uniform 3D contact stress irregular shape, non-uniform 3D
contact stress
PB/2006/C-2 A benchmark of stress and strain in a variety of pavements
1st order system for measuring T, σ, Wireless intelligent aggregate
, , psuc Additional T, σ, , , psuc
Benchmark set of T,σ, , , psuc
PB/2006/C-3 Modelling vertical and horizontal variation in pavement response related to the temperature and stress dependency of materials
Closed form solution FE solution
•Temp. gradient in AC •3D variation in temp. dens. MC
•Dens. and MC gradient in unbound and stress condition
•Effective stress in unbound •Thermally coupled analysis
•Stress dependency in unbound •Effective stress in unbound
PB/2006/C-4 Improved modelling of geometric non-linearity
Closed form solution with layer slip FE solution with cracks
PB/2006/C-5 Improved modelling of material non-linearity and dynamic pavement response
Closed form visco-elastic solution FE solution FE solution
•Perfect plasticity •Visco-elasto-plastic
•Dynamic response analysis
Slide 17
Immediate Short-term Medium-term
PB/2006/ILP Integration level project
PB/2006/D-1 Improved damage models for bituminous materials
Fatigue damage models based on PMS based damage distributions SA based fatigue and plastic strain
overseas research and expected life for surface seals damage models for HMA surfacing and
Plastic strain predictive models and non-structural thin layer base courses
Test protocols and damage model bituminous surfacings Mechanistic damage models for seals
calibration procedures for bituminous and non-structural thin layer
material bituminous surfacings
PB/2006/D-2 Improved plastic strain and shear damage models for unbound material
A subgrade permanent deformation Ongoing calibration of yield
damage model strength and plastic strain damage
Calibrated yield strength and plastic models
strain damage models for unbound Continuous damage models for
structural layers non-linear recursive analysis
Test protocols and model calibration Yield strength and damage models
procedures for unbound material related to engineering parameters
PB/2006/D-3 Improved damage models for stabilized material
Final recommendation on appropriate Yield strength, plastic strain and
damage models; flexibility models calibrated for a
Accelerated curing procedures for comprehensive range of stabilized
simulating short and long-term aging; materials at different stabilizer
Test protocols for yield strength, contents and different stages of
plastic strain and flexibility testing; curing
The effect of long-term changes on
the yield strength, flexibility and plastic
deformation resistance;
Recalibration of the effective fatigue
damage model for cement-treated
material.
Slide 18 PB/2006/B-3 PB/2006/B-4
Immediate Short-term Medium-term
PB/2006/ILP Integration level project
PB/2006/E-1 Actual spatial and time variation of field variables, engineering parameters and the environment
Information system shell for Ongoing population of information
•Spatial and time variation of field systems
variables and engineering parameters Models relating pavement conditions
•Spatial and time variation of to environmental variables
environmental variables
PB/2006/E-2 Guidelines on the collection and interpretation of statistical data
Guidelines for collecting sufficiently
large data samples and method
specifications for statistical analysis and
interpretation of the input data for new
and rehabilitation design;
Training material on the content of
the above documents.
PB/2006/E-3 Design risk analysis and pavement performance simulation
Probabilistic simulation on design Linear recursive simulation for Non-linear recursive simulation
traffic and bearing capacity estimation time-based modeling of pavement for time-based modeling of
to calculate design risk. performance pavement performance
Slide 19
