ASPHALT INSTITUTE METHOD

FOR
FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT DESIGN

Dr. Padma Bahadur Shahi

GENERAL DESIGN CONCEPT FOR PAVEMENT DESIGN
 TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
 In pavement design, number of repetition of each axle load
group during the design period.
 The initial daily traffic in two directions over all traffic
lanes must be multiplied by directional and lane
distribution factors to obtain the initial traffic on design
lane.
 The traffic used for design is the average traffic for design
period, s initial traffic must be multiplied by growth
factor.
 If ni is the number of load repetitions to be used in in
design for ith load group, then

ESAL  (i 1 pi Fi )( ADT )0 (T )( A)(G)( D)( L)(365)(Y )

m
TRAFFIC ANALYSIS

 (no)i is the initial number of repetitions per day for

the ith load group, G is the growth factor, D is the
directional distributional factor, L is the lane
distribution factor, Y is the design period in years.
 If the design is based on the equivalent 80 kN single
axle load, then the initial number of repetitions per
day for the ith load group can be computed by:

(no )i  ( pi Fi ) ( ADT ) 0 (T )( A)
pi is the percentage of load repetitions for ith load group, Fi is the
equivalent axle load factor for the load group , (ADT)o is the average daily
traffic at the start of the design period, T is the percentage of truck in the
ADT, and A is the average number of axle per truck.
 The equivalent axle load for the design lane is

ESAL  (i 1 pi Fi )( ADT )0 (T )( A)(G)( D)( L)(365)(Y )

m

Truck Factor : number of 80 kN single axle load

applications per truck , can be expressed as:

T f  (i 1 pi Fi )( A)
m

Equivalent Single Axle Load

ESAL  T f ( ADT ) 0 (T )(G )( D)( L)(365)(Y )

 AVERAGE DAILY TRUCK TRAFFIC

 The minimum traffic information required for the

pavement design is the average daily truck traffic
(ADTT) at the start of design period. It may be
expressed as a percentage of ADT or as an actual value.
 The traffic count must be adjusted for daily and
seasonal variation to obtain AADT.
 If the actual traffic date is not available, distribution of
AADT on the different categories of highway can be used
from the existing database.
 DISTRIBUTION OF TRUCKS IN DIFFERENT CLASS OF HIGHWAY
IN USA:

Percentage of trucks
Truck class freeways Principle arterial
Single unit truck:
2 axle four tire 66 67 84
2 axle 6 tire 12 15 9
3 axle or more 4 3 2
All single units 83 85 95
Multiple unit trucks
4 axle or less 5 3 2
5 axle 13 12 3
6 or more axle <1 <1 <1
All multiple units 18 15 5
All trucks 100 100 100
 1 lb=4.45 N
TRUCK FACTOR
Axle Load, lb EAL Factor Number of axle ESAL
Single axle
Under 3000 .002 0 0
3000-6999 .005 1 .005
7000-7999 .032 6 .192
8000-11999 .087 144 12.528
12000-15999 .360 16 5.760
16000-29999 5.3890 1 5.389
Tandem axle
Under 6000 0.0100 0 0
6000-11999 0.010 14 .14
12000-17999 .0440 21 .924
18000-23999 .1480 44 .512
24000-29999 .4260 42 17.892
30000-32000 .7530 44 33.132
32001-32500 .8850 21 18.585
32501-33999 1.002 101 101.202
34000-35999 1.230 43 52.890
ESAL for all trucks weighed 255.151
Truck Factor (255.151/165) 1.5464
 TOTAL GROWTH FACTOR
 Asphalt Institute method total growth factor
(1  r )  1 n
GF  (G ) * (Y ) 
r
 To determine annual growth rate following factors should be
considered:
 Attracted or diverted traffic: due to improvement of
existing pavement
 Normal traffic growth: due to increase number or use of
motor vehicles
 Generated traffic: due to vehicle trips that would not have
been made if new facility had not been constructed
 Development traffic: due to changes in landuse as a result
of new facility
 EXAMPLE:

 For annual growth rate 3.5% and a design period of 30

years, compute the growth factors:
LANE DISTRIBUTION FACTOR
 For two lane highways, the lane in each direction is the
design lane, so that lane distribution factor is 100%.
 Truck distribution for multiple lane highway: table
TRUCK DISTRIBUTION FOR MULTILANE HIGHWAY

Two lanes in each Three or more lanes in each

direction direction
One way Inner Outer Inner Central outer
ADT
2000 6 94 6 12 82
4000 12 88 6 18 76
6000 15 85 7 21 72
8000 18 82 7 23 70
20000 25 75 7 30 63
60000 34 66 8 39 53
 SUMMARY OF PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL TRUCK TRAFFIC IN
DESIGN LANE

Number of traffic lanes in two % of trucks in design lane

direction
2 50
4 45
6 or more 40

Number of traffic lanes in each % of 80 kN ESAL in design lane

direction
1 100
2 80-100
3 60-80
4 50-75
 ASPHALT INSTITUTE METHOD
 It has pavement thickness design manual which assumes:
 Asphalt pavement are multilayered elastic system.
 the wheel load W, is transmitted to the pavement surface
through the tire at a uniform vertical pressure Po. The
stress are then spread through the pavement structure to
produce a reduced maximum vertical stress P1, at the sub-
grade surface.
 The wheel load W, causes the pavement structure to deflect,
creating both compressive and tensile stresses in the
pavement structure.
 In developing the design procedure, AI engineers calculated
induced horizontal tensile strains, t, at the bottom of the
asphalt layer and vertical compressive strain c, at the top
of the sub-grade.
 Computer program DAMA or SW1 for calculating thiskness
using these criteria.
SPREAD OF WHEEL LOAD PRESSURE THROUGH PAVEMENT STRUCTURE
PAVEMENT DEFLECTION RESULT IN TENSILE AND COMPRESSIVE STRESSES
SUB-GRADE EVALUATION

 CBR
 Resilient Modulus
RESILIENT MODULUS
 Resilience is the property of a material to absorb energy
when it is deformed elastically and then, upon unloading to
have this energy recovered. In other words, it is the
maximum energy per unit volume that can be elastically
stored. It is represented by the area under the curve in the
elastic region in the Stress-Strain diagram.
 The Resilient Modulus (MR) is a subgrade material stiffness
test. A material's resilient modulus is actually an
estimate of its modulus of elasticity (E). While the
modulus of elasticity is stress divided by strain (e.g., the
slope of the stress-strain diagram the linear elastic range)
for a slowly applied load, resilient modulus is stress divided
by strain for rapidly applied loads – like those experienced
by pavements.
 RESILIENT MODULUS
Subgrade Strength Evaluation
 The characteristic material property of subgrade soils used for pavement
design is the resilient modulus (MR). The resilient modulus is defined as
being a measure of the elastic property of a soil recognizing selected non-
linear characteristics. Methods for the determination of MR are described
in AASHTO
 T294-92 test method. For many years, standard California Bearing Ratio
(CBR) tests were utilized to measure the subgrade strength parameter as
a design input.
 For roadbed materials, the AASHTO Guide [AASHTO 93] recommends
that the resilient modulus be established based on laboratory testing of
representative samples in stress and moisture conditions simulating the
primary moisture seasons. Alternatively, the seasonal resilient modulus
values may be determined based on correlations with soil properties.
 Since the resilient modulus test equipment is currently not present in
many laboratories, researchers have developed correlations to converting
CBR values to approximate MR values. The correlation considered
reasonable for fine grained soils with a soaked CBR of 10 or less is:
 MR (MPa) = 10.3 * ( CBR) [AASHTO 93]
 INTRODUCTION

 It is the process of determining the thickness of

pavement structures consisting of Asphalt Concrete
Surface, Emulsified Asphalt Concrete (with surface
treatment), Asphalt concrete base, emulsified asphalt
concrete base and untreated aggregate base or sub base.
DESIGN PROCEDURE
1. Input data:
 Traffic loading, ESA
 Sub-grade resilient modulus, Mr.
 Surface and base type
2. Determine design thickness for the specific
conditions described by the input data.
3. Prepare stage construction design
4. Make economic analysis of various solutions.
5. Select the final design
 FLOW DIAGRAM

Determine the initial Measure of

traffic and expected growth Estimate Sub-
Select materials
rate converted to ESA for grade resilient
design period modulus

Determine Design thickness

combinations

Stage construction Options

Economic analysis

Final Design
AI METHOD FOR PAVEMENT DESIGN
 MINIMUM THICKNESS OF ASPHALT CONCRETE OVER UNTREATED
AGGREGATE BASE

Traffic, ESA Traffic conditions Minimumthickn

ess,
10,000 Light traffic parking lots, light 75 mm
traffic roads
10, 000 – 100, 000 Medium truck traffic 100 mm

More than 100, 000 Medium to heavy traffic 125 mm

 EQUIVALENT DEPTH RATION OF ASPHALT CONCRETE AND BASE

1/ 3
tb  Eac 
 
t ac  Eb 
 EXAMPLE
 The result of the sub-grade soil in CBR at seven locations
obtained in a certain stretch of the road are given below.
We are required to adopt CBR values as 85 percentile.

S/N Chainage Test CBR result, %

1 0+050 11
2 0+350 7
3 0+500 7.5
4 0+650 8
5 0+800 4
6 0+950 6
7 1+500 5
 EXAMPLE
 Four lane/ two lane highway to be designed:
 Annual Growth rate 6%
 design period 12 years
 Construction period 2 years
 Modulus of elasticity of asphalt concrete in 2000MPa
 Modulus of untreated crushed aggregate base is 250 Mpa
 Modulus of untreated granular sub-base is 100 MPa
Truck Bus
Car/Jeep/

Rikshaw

Rikshaw

Bicycle
Tractor

Animal
2-Axle
3-Axle

Power
Utility

Motor
Large

Cycle
Micro

triller
Auto
Mini

Mini

Taxi

cart
124 243 48 342 98 249 210 45 114 166 8 1440 39 92 2101

Axle load factors for ESA

3-axle truck 2-axle truck Mini truck Large bus Minibus

10.54 4.5 .97 1.38 .38
TRAFFIC ANALYSIS

 Growth factor calculation

 ESA for base period

 Expected cumulative ESA for design period

 85 PERCENTILE CBR DETERMINATION
120
Percentage equal to greater than in %

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Sub-grade CBR, %