Pavement Subgrade Performance Study: Project Overview
Abstract
Mechanistic design or evaluation of pavements requires fundamental material properties and material failure criteria as a function of load and environmental effects such as temperature and moisture content. The strength or weakness of a pavement structure is based on the performance of the subgrade. The current subgrade failure criteria used in many mechanistic design/evaluation methodologies were surmised mainly from tests that did not consider the effects of subgrade soil type or moisture content. Because of these limitations the current FHWA-sponsored Subgrade Performance Study was designed to investigate and upgrade the failure criteria of subgrade materials. The project plans to study the effect of subgrade type and moisture content on the failure criteria. This international study includes testing at the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory where test sections are being constructed using four subgrade types and three moisture contents and subjected to accelerated loading. The sections are instrumented with stress strain moisture and temperature sensors. In this study the ambient temperature is held at around 20 deg C. This report provides an overview of the test program and testing procedure. Subsequent reports will detail the construction of each test section the data acquired and the results.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA415860
Entities
People
- Lynne Irwin
- Robert Haehnel
- Vincent Janoo
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center