01143668

Component

http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/162379.aspx

About 85% of Australia’s sealed arterial road network consists of unbound granular pavements and a thin bituminous surfacing, normally a chip seal. While these pavements are very cheap, compared with other pavement types, and capable of withstanding high traffic loads, their optimum performance is very much dependent on maintaining a surface at the desired level of service for road users. Most pavement management system (PMS) databases do not permit the development of models that predict the influence of various surface treatments on deterioration because of correlation problems with the data in PMS databases. Experimental pavement performance data are therefore needed to develop these road deterioration (RD) models that can discriminate between the various surface treatments so that maintenance treatments are selected to produce the lowest pavement life-cycle cost. The feasibility of using accelerated pavement testing to predict the influence of various surface treatments on deterioration was confirmed by pilot testing on an existing pavement with different types of surface treatment. A followup trial involving 10 experiments and various types of surface treatment on separate test pavements was undertaken under controlled environmental conditions using the Accelerated Loading Facility in an enclosure to control moisture environment. Pavement deterioration was measured in terms of the progression of rutting, roughness, and surface deflection. The deterioration data were used to estimate relative performance factors for rutting and roughness for a range of surface treatments under surface conditions varying from dry to continuously wet. The relative performance factors can be applied to the observed deterioration of given surface treatments to develop RD models that predict the influence of various surface treatments on deterioration. The data are supplemented by data being collected in various long-term pavement performance projects, including a project directed specifically at maintenance treatments. Although only thin bituminous surface treatments were used in the experimental testing, it would seem reasonable to expect that this form of testing could be extrapolated to thin asphalt surface treatments (≤50 mm) over flexible pavement bases. The accelerated load testing experiments appear to be a rapid means of determining the relative performance of various surface treatments applied to flexible pavement bases. It would be useful to compare the outcomes from this approach, and the resources involved, with those from a theoretical nonlinear finite element analysis based on laboratory material performance characterization.

01143665

English

pp 32-48

2009-9

Transportation Research Circular

Web

Figures (6) ; Photos (1) ; References (12) ; Tables (2)

Accelerated tests; Deflection; Deterioration; Flexible pavements; Mathematical models; Pavement maintenance; Pavement performance; Roughness; Rutting; Surface treating

Australia

Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Pavements; I60: Maintenance

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Nov 2 2009 4:33PM

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• Minnesota Road Research Project Mainline Maintenance Observations and Test Track Lessons Learned, 2003–2006
• Use and Application of Accelerated Pavement Testing in Pavement Preservation Research
• Use of Accelerated Pavement Testing to Evaluate Maintenance and Pavement Preservation Treatments: Introduction