PAVEMENT ENGINEERING

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of the course, students will know procedures for Pavement analysis, design, and maintenance, including material selection and characterization, mix design of asphalt concrete, design of pavement layers using both empirical and mechanistic methods, performance evaluation of existing pavements using visual inspection, manual system, high speed equipment and instrumented vehicles.

Students will also acquire fundamental knowledge and skill for laboratory testing of materials.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

−  Classify bearing capacity of subgrade, swell potential and frost susceptibility;

−  Select the most appropriate technique for soil stabilization;

−  Identify and analyse traffic load parameters;

−  Identify and analyse weather factors for pavement design;

−  Select and test materials for pavement layers;

−  Perform the mix design of asphalt concrete;

−  Design the layers’ thickness of the pavement structure;

−  Identify maintenance needs in the service life of the pavement;

−  Identify distress and performance of in operation Asphalt pavements;

−  Design overlay to improve the residual life;

Lectures, tutorials, exercises, laboratory and in-filed training. Home works

Traffic, environmental conditions, soil and drainage

Weather and Environment factors. Traffic and load distribution concepts. Load Equivalency Factors. Subgrade, Subbase, Drainage. Soil stabilization concept and methods.

Material characterization and asphalt mix design

Historical background. Pavement performances. Pavement Type: Flexible pavement, Rigid pavement, Special Pavement: Draining-Sound Absorbent, Composite. Asphalt Concrete. Properties and characteristics of binders and aggregates. Laboratory material characterization. Viscoelastic nature of asphalt and direct measure of stiffness. Types, properties and design of asphalt mixes. Marshall and Superpave mix Design. Harmonized European Specifications.

Structural design

Resilient modulus, Dynamic modulus of asphalt concrete. Fatigue cracking, Rutting and permanent deformation. Pavement performance and analysis period. Pavements catalogs. Empirical Methods. Mechanicistic-Empirical Methods.

Maintenance and rehabilitation

Maintenance and rehabilitation of asphalt pavement. Pavement Management Systems (PMS). Pavement Survey. Nondestructive tests. Bearing capacity, Unevenness, Skid resistance and surface texture, visual evaluation of Distress. Overlay design.

Textbooks

Guide for Design of Pavement Structures, 4th Edition, AASHTO, 1993 (pdf)

Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide, AASHTO, 2008 (pdf)

Catalogo delle Pavimentazioni Stradali, CNR, 1994 (pdf)

Highway Engineering - Pavements, Materials and Control of Quality. A. Nikolaides. CRC 2015

Pavement Engineering, Rajib B. Mallick, Tahar El-Korchi, CRC, 3nd edition, 2016

F.A. Santagata et al. Strade. Vol. 2 Teoria e Tecnica delle Costruzioni Stradali - Pearson, 2016