Calculation method for permanent deformation of unbound pavement materials: Fid-Bau Portal

Calculation method for permanent deformation of unbound pavement materials

Korkiala-Tanttu, Leena

An analytical-mechanistic method for the calculation of permanent deformations of pavements has been developed at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) over some years by the author. The calculation method is needed in the analytical design procedure of pavements. This research concentrated on the calculation method for permanent deformations in unbound pavement materials. The calculation method was generated based on the results of full-scale accelerated pavement tests along with the complementary laboratory tests together with finite element calculations. The objective was to develop a relatively simple material model for unbound materials, which is an analytical, nonlinear elasto-plastic model. The stress distribution studies of traffic load showed that it is very important to calculate stresses in pavements with an elasto-plastic material model to avoid false tensile stresses in unbound materials, especially when the asphalt layers are thin. The new material deformation model can take into account the amount of the loading, the number of vehicle or wheel passes, the deformation capacity of the material and its stress state. The strains in each layer and subgrade are calculated and converted to the vertical deformations and then summed to obtain the total rutting. The method was verified against two Finnish accelerated pavement tests. The results indicated that the material model gave tolerable results for the relatively high load levels used in these Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) tests as the relative error was around +/- 30%. For the structures with thicker bound layers and therefore lower stress state in the unbound layers, the method gave more reliable results.