Soil Resilient Modulus Regressed from Physical Properties and Influence of Seasonal Variation on Asphalt Pavement Performance
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 1
Abstract
Subgrade soil, as the critical underlying support for other pavement layers and traffic loads, should be stiff enough to maintain the integrity of pavement structures and the smoothness of pavement surface. The resilient modulus, as an indicator of subgrade stiffness, is an essential input in the AASHTO Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). At input level 1 of MEPDG, the MEPDG generalized model is required to describe resilient modulus of subgrade soil, and the coefficients of this model are used for pavement design. The change of the resilient modulus model has raised the interest of many state highway agencies and made it necessary to convert old resilient modulus test data into new ones required for the MEPDG model. In this study, the coefficients of the generalized and the universal models for soil resilient modulus were obtained through regression of the results of 13 soils in Tennessee. The coefficients of the two models were also compared. There is a potential risk that the coefficients from the universal model may be mistakenly used in the MEPDG instead of those coefficients from the generalized model. The consequence of this improper use was demonstrated in the comparison between the miscalculated and the real resilient moduli. The coefficients of the generalized model were correlated to soil physical properties, which provided an alternate time-saving and economical method to obtain soil resilient modulus as level 2 inputs. The coefficients were obtained at different post-compaction water contents, to allow the estimation of pavement response under seasonal moisture variation of subgrade. Rutting and roughness of two typical pavement sections were analyzed to investigate the influence of the seasonal variation of soil resilient modulus on pavement performance. The results showed that moisture variation had a significant effect on subgrade resilient modulus and, subsequently, on pavement performance. It is recommended that seasonal change in soil resilient modulus be considered in the analysis on pavement performance.
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). The authors would like to thank TDOT engineers for their help with data acquisition. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the authors, who are solely responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein, and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of TDOT, nor do the contents constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 1 • January 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 2, 2013
Accepted: Jun 5, 2014
Published online: Jul 22, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 22, 2014
Published in print: Jan 1, 2015
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