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Title:

Evaluation of Flexible Pavement Drainage

Accession Number:

01658420

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

Moisture can significantly affect flexible pavement performance. As such, it is important to remove moisture from flexible pavements as quickly as possible, especially to avoid allowing moisture into the pavement subgrade. Given the damage potential of moisture intrusion, in the 1990s the Indiana Department of Transportation adopted a flexible pavement cross-section that includes an open-graded drainage layer, typically an open-graded asphalt mixture, connected to an edge-drain to remove moisture from the pavement system. However, over the intervening two decades, flexible pavement design and construction practices have dramatically changed in Indiana, and the effectiveness of the pavements drainage system may have changed. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Indiana Department of Transportation’s current flexible pavement drainage systems given the changes to pavement cross-sections that have occurred since the open-graded drainage layer was adopted. Additionally, the effectiveness of edge drains was examined. Finite element method results indicate that the inclusion of a drainage layer in flexible pavements acts to maintain subgrade moisture contents at native levels, while flexible pavements without drainage layers result in fully saturated subgrades. Also, while the results show that either a dense-graded aggregate or a dense-graded asphalt mixture can be used as a filter layer between the subgrade and the open-graded drainage layer, the subgrade tends to have lower moisture when a granular filter is used. Finally, the results indicate edge drains have a positive effect on flexible pavements that do not contain a drainage layer.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFS60 Standing Committee on Subsurface Drainage.

Report/Paper Numbers:

18-01537

Language:

English

Authors:

Ghavami, Masoud
Hosseini, Maryam Sadat
Zavattieri, Pablo D
Haddock, John E

Pagination:

6p

Publication Date:

2018

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Geographic Terms:

Indiana

Subject Areas:

Design; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Pavements

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-01537

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Jan 8 2018 10:23AM