Study On Performance Of Flexible Highway Pavements

Abstract

The evaluation of pavement riding quality entails a comprehensive examination of the functional behaviour of a stretch of road surface. Information on the history of riding quality of the pavement stretch is required for a functional behaviour or performance study. Pavement surface condition is assessed at a certain moment during a condition survey. A Bump Integrator, which defines the total surface condition of the pavement in physical terms, can measure the riding quality of a pavement. The pavement maintenance engineer must examine the functional condition of a pavement surface on a regular basis. Unevenness is normally measured with response type measuring equipment, which is relatively fast and inexpensive. The towed fifth wheel Bump Integrator is one such instrument.

The slope variance or cumulative humps and depressions (mm/km) are commonly used to describe the unevenness recorded by these instruments. The Benkelman Beam is used to assess the deflection of flexible pavement in structural evaluations. The rebound and residual deflections of the pavement structure may be measured. The residual deflection may be attributed to non-recoverable pavement deflection or the action of the deflection bowl on the front legs of the beam, whereas the rebound deflection is linked to pavement performance. Overlay design employs rebound deflection. The objective of the present study is to carry out the various studies to evaluate the performance (in service behavior) of flexible National Highways and State Highway near Bhopal. A detailed pavement condition survey is done on 2 National Highways and 1 State Highway and the road condition is evaluated both functionally and structurally.