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Performance Evaluation of Ultra-Thin Pavement Seals in Low-Volume Roads

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Book cover Recent Developments in Pavement Design, Modeling and Performance (GeoMEast 2018)

Abstract

The concept of ultra-thin seals for pavement was initially a preventive maintenance strategy for deteriorating pavement structure. However, it has currently been considered as an alternative for upgrading unsealed low-volume road to sealed road. Considering ultra-thin seal surfacing in low-volume roads will make these roads to be maintenance cost effective, improve ride quality, reduce noise generated, prevent water ingression to underlying layer, and reduce dust generation and loss of aggregate. Nevertheless, the question remains which pavement surfacing option will give a substantial improvement in terms of bearing capacity and economy. Therefore, this paper examines the performance of sealed low-volume roads using asphalt and concrete. Consequently, a finite element (FE) model was developed in general-purpose FE software Abaqus to simulate the pavement layers under a static loading condition and benchmarked with multi-layered elastic software WinJulea and mePADS. In this study two scenarios of low-volume roads were modelled by varying the thickness of the surfacing layer over the conventional granular base and stabilized base layer. Comparative results of the two surfacing options were measured through the horizontal strains underneath the surface layer, vertical strains on the subgrade layer and the increase in pavement bearing capacities. Thus, this study evaluates and suggests the most viable ultra-thin surfacing option between asphalt and concrete for low volume roads.

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Correspondence to Jacob Adedayo Adedeji .

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Adedeji, J.A., Mostafa Hassan, M. (2019). Performance Evaluation of Ultra-Thin Pavement Seals in Low-Volume Roads. In: El-Badawy, S., Abd El-Hakim, R. (eds) Recent Developments in Pavement Design, Modeling and Performance. GeoMEast 2018. Sustainable Civil Infrastructures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01908-2_1

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