Effects of pavement conditions on effective structural number of in-service pavements

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

11-15-2013

Abstract

Pavement structural number (SN), which is an important property used in the design of new and rehabilitated pavement systems, may be calculated based on falling weight deflectometer (FWD) deflections. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between pavement distresses as performance indicators, pavement condition indices, and the effective structural number of in-service pavements calculated from FWD testing. Fifty pavement sections were tested in Louisiana using FWD to assess their structural capacity. Pavement performance was assessed in terms of cracking, rutting, and roughness as well as the pavement condition index (PCI) as an overall performance indicator. Based on this analysis, the coefficient of variation (COV) in SN calculations in the 50 pavement sections was very high and ranged from 14 to 63% with an average COV of 35%. Results of the statistical analysis conducted in this study showed that asphalt concrete (AC) thickness, alligator cracking, IRI, and base thickness were the most significant factors influencing the effective structural number of a pavement section. In contrast, rutting and patching caused no significant effect on the calculated structural number. For most of the sections, SN showed good correlation to the AC modulus when the individual locations were compared with low moduli in areas where SN values were relatively low. However, poor correlation was observed when the average SN was correlated with the average AC modulus for the pavement sections. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Airfield and Highway Pavement 2013: Sustainable and Efficient Pavements - Proceedings of the 2013 Airfield and Highway Pavement Conference

First Page

362

Last Page

372

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