Pressuremeter Moduli for Airport Pavement Design and Evaluation
Abstract
The pavement pressuremeter is a new tool which is used to obtain the moduli of the base course and the subgrade soil. These moduli are necessary in the design, evaluation, and repair of airport pavements. The test consists of opening a 1.35 inch diameter, 5 feet deep hole in the pavement and lowering a 9 inch long cylindrical probe at the testing depth. The probe is inflated radially and a stress strain curve is recorded in situ. No drilling rig is necessary. Current practice makes use of the cyclic triaxial test to obtain the moduli. The pavement pressuremeter has major advantages over the cyclic triaxial test: it is much less expensive, much less time consuming, almost nondestructive and yields comparable moduli. This was shown at three airports, one on sand, two on stiff clay. The pavement pressuremeter tests were performed and the moduli were calculated. Samples were obtained (with great difficulty in the sand) and cyclic triaxial tests were performed to get the moduli. Falling weight deflectometer tests were also performed and provided measured deflections. These deflections were predicted while using the pavement pressuremeter moduli and then the cyclic triaxial tests moduli. Comparison of predicted and measured deflections showed that the pressuremeter predicted as well if not better the deflections in clay and in sand. This study shows that the pavement pressuremeter is a tool which can be used advantageously for the prediction of pavement deflections and is ready to be used progressively for the design of new pavements, the extension of existing pavements, the evaluation of existing pavements and the design of pavement overlays.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA188338
Entities
People
- J. L. Briaud
- P. J. Cosentino
- T. A. Terry