Performance evaluation of flexible pavements with a lateritic gravel base using accelerated pavement testing

摘要

Lateritic gravel is widely used for road construction and its mechanical properties have been explored in numerous laboratory tests. In this study, full-scale accelerated pavement testing was conducted to evaluate the long-term performance of pavements constructed with lateritic gravel as the subbase and base materials. Test Sections were constructed in a test tank and instrumented with temperature sensors, strain sensors, and moisture content sensors. This study investigated two asphalt layer thicknesses (5 cm and 10 cm) and three types of base materials (crushed stone, cement-lateritic gravel, and lateritic gravel blended with crushed stone) for comparative purposes. The test pavements all had a uniform subbase depth of 30 cm of raw lateritic gravel. The development of permanent deformation and cracking was recorded periodically. Based on measurements and observations, this study found that the crushed stone base performed better than the blended lateritic base in terms of rutting and cracking resistance and that rutting development was relatively less in the thicker (10 cm) asphalt layer than in the thinner (5 cm) layer. The cement-lateritic base developed the largest rutting and exhibited the earliest appearance of cracking among the three base types and showed the weakest behavior among these three bases. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.