Structural Performance of Thin Asphalt Pavement Under Accelerated Pavement Testing

Three thin asphalt pavement sections containing different chemically stabilized base and subbase materials were tested under the accelerated pavement testing (APT) at the Louisiana Accelerated Pavement Research Facility. Each pavement section consisted of different base and subbase materials, but having a common configuration of layer thicknesses. APT results generally indicated that both stabilized Blended Calcium Sulfate (BCS) bases outperformed a foamed asphalt treated base by a significantly large margin while a cement-treated soil subbase layer proved to have better load bearing capacity than a lime-treated soil layer. The structural performance of test sections was further analyzed using the non destructive test results and instrumentation measured pavement responses. The newly developed Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (M-E PDG) software was also used in predicting the rutting development on tested sections. Finally, a simple rut depth prediction model, which relates flexible pavement rutting development to the in-situ surface deflection characteristics, was proposed.