ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF ASPHALT CONCRETE PAVEMENTS IN SHRP - NL TEST SECTIONS

As a first stage of the verification of the RHED structural design method, an overall analysis of SHRP - NL data has been made. These data have been supplemented with a limited number of test sections that have been analyzed before in an earlier verification project. For a total of 189 road sections, pavement fatigue strength values have been determined from back calculated construction data. These have been compared with the cumulative traffic load over the life of these pavements, to determine the theoretical degree of fatigue. The test sections used in this analysis are well representative for the Dutch road network concerning construction, traffic load and age. The main conclusion of the analysis therefore is that in common design practice, fatigue in the traditional sense (i.e., initiated at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layers) will rarely or never be the predominant failure mechanism. Surface cracking is the main cause of structural distress.