Crushing damage estimation for pavement with lightly cementitious bases

Abstract

Crushing (or compression) failure and associated surface deformation of lightly cementitious (stabilised) materials used for base/sub-base course layers in pavements has been well established in the South African pavement design practice since the 1990s. Typically, crushing failure starts at the surface of the cementitious base layer, and could extend to 50 mm deep, depending on tyre load/stress conditions. Recently developed crushing damage relationships for 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mm level of deformation (“rut”) were proposed for practical application on these pavements. The aim of this paper is the practical application of these relationships for an un-surfaced and surfaced pavement with a typical stabilised (C3 – quality) base layer. Currently there are up to 15 standard pavement designs with cementitious base layers proposed in TRH 4 (1996). This paper demonstrates the impact of four different tyre models (including overloading) used in the mechanistic-empirical design of these pavements. In particular, the importance of adequate surface protection is demonstrated with reference to the vertical tyre contact stresses expected on these cementitious layers. The impact of the findings extends to the use (or not) of C3 - quality bases and associated surfacings on all categories of pavements carrying up to 10 million E80s. This is considered important towards the upgrading of secondary (or alternative) road pavements using cementitious stabilisers in the base layer, especially in the light of the potential future attraction of heavily loaded vehicles - with or without overloading on the tyres.