APPLICATIONS OF LAYERED THEORY FOR THE ANALYSIS OF FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS

Abstract

Unbound granular materials used in untreated base/sub-base layers, exhibit nonlinear behavior under repeated wheel loads. The properties of the granular materials play a significant role in the performance of these pavements. Therefore, accurate modelling of the granular layers is essential in the evaluation of critical pavement responses under the application of loads, these materials exhibit stress dependent characteristics. Thus, consideration of non-linearity in these layers is necessary for accurate estimation of the pavement responses of a flexible pavement structure. The pavement responses are computed using Kenlayer computer program developed by Huang. Using the Kenlayer program, this paper examines the effect of nonlinearity in granular on critical pavement responses by conducting parametric analysis. The results indicate that the consideration of nonlinearity yields 23.13% reduction in tensile strains at the bottom of bituminous layers and 0.76% increase in compressive strains on the top of the sub grade layers and same surface deflections compared to the value obtained using linear elastic analysis. This indicates that nonlinear analysis is more realistic and accurate.