Aspects of deflection basin parameters used in a mechanistic rehabilitation design procedure for flexible pavements in South Africa

Abstract

The non-destructive measurement of deflection basins has come a long way from measuring only maximum deflection or radius of curvature and using empirical relationships in rehabilitation design. New equipment was developed world-wide and analysis techniques moved towards utilising the full deflection basin in fundamental analysis procedures. This author addressed the problem of a proper description of the full deflection basin by doing a detailed literature survey on this subject. Various deflection basin parameters that describe the deflection basin are listed, as well as the various measuring apparatus related to them. The apparatus are all discussed in detail and related to the equipment available in South Africa. The measurement of deflection basins with the road surface deflectometer (RSD) under accelerated testing with the fleet of heavy vehicle simulators (HVSs) are described in detail. An improved data manipulation procedure is proposed which simplifies the calculation of all the deflection basin parameters found in literature. Various models to fit the measured deflection basins are also investigated in an effort to describe the deflection basin in full too. The measured deflection basin parameters of a bitumen, granular, cemented and light structured granular base pavement are discussed in detail as being tested with the fleet of HVS's. It is shown how the deflection basin parameters reflect the structural capacity of the various layers and behaviour states. A more accurate description of the behaviour states is made possible with the proposal of ranges for the various behaviour states for these deflection basins selected. A literature study was carried out to investigate the various analysis procedures that use measured deflection basins as basic input in the characterization of materials. On the basis of this study, linear elastic programmes were used to calculate effective elastic moduli for each pavement layer, using measured deflection basins as input. The possibility to relate typical distress determinants to measured deflection basins were investigated in the literature. Based on this, typical South African flexible pavement structures were analysed mechanistically and typical design curves were established for typical bitumen and. granular base pavements. The effect of overlays were investigated too, resulting in typical overlay design curves. In the final chapter the author endeavours to summarise the research by indicating how deflection basins can be measured and enhance the South African mechanistic rehabilitation design process. Only the latter rehabilitation design procedure is discussed with specific reference to the enhancement of the behaviour state identification, material characterization, analysis procedure and rehabilitation design with measured deflection basin parameters. The author ends off by giving an indication of the future research need in this field of deflection basins.