The Effects of Nonlinear Characteristics of Road Foundations on Pavement Response

In the current design method, the road foundation and the asphalt concrete pavement are considered separately. This is not much of a problem for a traditional construction, but ever more new constructions are requiring such an integral approach. The reason for this lies in their increased scale and complexity, and the application of new techniques and materials/material combinations. In this paper, the mechanical response of an asphalt concrete pavement, typical of Dutch conditions, has been studied on the basis of wheel tracking simulations. In order to characterize the significance of the influence of the road foundation on the pavement performance, a numerical examples has been studied. The finite element simulation shows the development of strains and stresses inside the body of the pavement. The importance of the damage distribution in the mixes and subgrade is demonstrated. Evaluation of the development of strain and stresses inside the body of the pavement indicate the reasons for the observed differences in permanent surface deformation from case to case. The results of the analyses indicate that the characteristics of road base, subbase and subgrade material can influence significantly the pavement response.