TECHNICAL PAPERS
Jan 1, 1996

Closed-Form Back-Calculation of Rigid-Pavement Parameters

Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 122, Issue 1

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a solution of surface deflections for the problem of infinite-slab-on-elastic foundation and its use in back-calculation analysis. Numerical integration is employed to compute the surface deflections. The method adopted simplifies calculations and leads to easy application in back-calculation of rigid-pavement parameters. A microcomputer closed-form back-calculation program called NUS-BACK is developed for this purpose, using the surface deflections measured by nondestructive testing devices as input. A comparison is made between the proposed approach and a widely reported closed-form back-calculation algorithm called ILLI-BACK. The proposed closed-form back-calculation scheme presents a more general solution to the rigid-pavement–evaluation problem. NUS-BACK can be used with deflections measured by any type of nondestructive surface deflection measuring devices directly. A major advantage of NUS-BACK over ILLI-BACK is its superiority in handling deflection data with measurement errors. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the differences between the two closed-form back-calculation solutions.

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References

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Go to Journal of Transportation Engineering
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 122Issue 1January 1996
Pages: 5 - 11

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Published online: Jan 1, 1996
Published in print: Jan 1996

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Authors

Affiliations

Li Shuo
Grad. Res. Student, Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 0511.
T. F. Fwa, Member, ASCE
Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Nat. Univ. at Singapore, Singapore.
K. H. Tan
Sr. Lect., Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore.

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