Dave Newcomb

Texas A&M Transportation Institute

Louisiana Transportation Conference
February 19, 2013

No Escalation Clause for Labor Rates!

Scalping Screens
Layered Pavement with Drainage


Warrens primary
patent of 1903
Patent No. 727505
which had the simple
title of Pavement
50 mm Binder Course (Asphalt
Cement and Broken Stone)

100+ mm Base
(Often PCC or other Base Materials)
Rich Sand Asphalt Mix
Placed separately
but compacted as
one layer
Invented by E.C. Wallace, a chemist with the Warren Brothers Co,
lived in Auburn, CA.
Issued Patent Nos. 959976 in 1910 and No. 1115259 in 1914
Called Endurite up to 1920 then Warrenite-Bitulithic thereafter







21
AASHO
Road Test
Trucks
23
LOOP
3 4 12 12
4 6 18 18
5 6 22 22
6 9 30 30
LANE 2
6 24 24
9 32 32
9 40 40
12 48 48
2 Years = 1.1 Million Applications
LANE 1
24
0
10
20
ASPHALT surface
CRUSHED STONE base
SANDY GRAVEL subbase
2 3 4 5 6
0 3 6 9
0 4 8 12 16
MATERIAL THICKNESS
3
6
8
25
.44
.14
.11
4
9
16
= 1.76
= 1.26
= 1.76
= 4.78
26
LOOP 3 4 5 6
AC .44 .44 .47 .33
STONE .16 .14 .14 .11
GRAVEL .11 .11 .11 .11
( )
( )
07 . 8 log 32 . 2
1
1094
4 . 0
5 . 1 2 . 4
log
20 . 0 1 log 36 . 9 log
19 . 5
0 18
+
+
+
(

A
+ + + =
R R
M
SN
PSI
SN S Z W
28

One Set of Materials
Two Years of Weathering
1.1 Million Axles
Totally Empirical
0
5
10
15
20
25
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
H
M
A

T
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s
,

i
n
.

Traffic, ESAL
AASHTO
PerRoad
Using 1960s performance equations
1950s type of load
Thin pavement structures (Max. 6 HMA)
Meaning of structural coefficients
Limited reliability analysis
Some movement to M-E
Use stresses and strains to design roads, just
like buildings.



Have to know loads, material properties, how
pavement responses relate to failure
Flexible pavements consist of multiple layers
Using physical principles, we can calculate stresses beneath
loads
P
a
H
1
, E
1
,
1
H
2
, E
2
,
2
E
n
,
n
z
r
t
Boussinesq Solution
Vertical Stresses beneath point load
Solution independent of material properties
2
z
P
k
z
= o
2
5
2
1
1
2
3
(
(

|
.
|

\
|
+
- =
z
r
k
t
z
r
P
Layer 1
HMA
E
1
Layer 2
Granular Base
E
2

Layer 3
Subgrade Soil
E
3

h
1

h
2

No bottom boundary, assume soil goes on infinitely.
No
horizontal
boundary,
assume
layers
extend
infinitely.
Tire has a total load P, spread over a circular
area with a radius of a, resulting in a contact
pressure of p.
Pavement
Reactions
Deflection (o)
Tensile Strain (c
t
)
Compressive Strain (c
v
)
Figure 2. Layered Elastic Model Representation of a Pavement.
Much more complicated system!
Initially solved for a limited set of parameters due to
computational limitations
= 0.5
Limited number of locations
P
a
H
1
, E
1
,
1
H
2
, E
2
,
2
E
n
,
n
o
z1
o
r1
o
z2
o
r2
o
r3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0.1 1 10 100
Stress, press/stress (%)
D
e
p
t
h
,

z
/
a
Horizontal Shear Stress, t
rz
/p
D
e
p
t
h
,

z
/
a

1.0
Layer 1



Layer 2
0.0
ox
D
e
p
t
h
,

z
Tension Compression
Layer 1


Layer 2
0
100
200
300
400
20 30 40 50 60
Wheel Load, kN
T
r
a
n
s
v
e
r
s
e

S
t
r
a
i
n
,

c

Test Section 21
Layered
Elastic
Results
Mn/ROAD
Measurements
Figure 4. A Comparison of Measured Strains and Computed Strains
at Mn/ROAD. (After Timm et al., 1998, Development of Mechanistic-
Empirical Pavement Design, Transportation Research Record No.
1629, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.)
Inputs Use Average Inputs Not Conservative!
Climate Integrated Climate Model
Traffic - Load Spectrum
Materials Modulus & Poissons Ratio
Reliability This is the Conservatism
Models - Must Be Calibrated!
Cracking
Bottom-Up
Top-Down
Thermal
Rutting
Any Layer
Roughness
Output
Distress Development with Time Example: Alberta
Modern Materials
Polymer Modifiers
More RAP/RAS
New Mixes
More Efficient Designs
Stop Over-Design
Engineer Materials for Pavement Layer
Greater Flexibility to Change
Adjust Models