Performance of Unbound Pavement Materials in Changing Moisture Conditions

Abstract

Expected climate changes will in many areas represent a shift towards increased precipitation and more intense rainfall events. This may lead to increased moisture within road structures and possible overloading of road drainage systems. Pavement design methods must therefore be able to predict the behaviour of pavement materials at increased moisture levels. An instrumented accelerated pavement test (APT) has been conducted on two thin flexible pavement structures with coarse-grained unbound base course and subbase materials using a heavy vehicle simulator (HVS). The two pavement structures were identical except for the grain size distribution of the subbase material, where one had a dense 0/90 mm curve with a controlled fines content, and the other had an open-graded 22/90 mm curve. The APT was conducted using constant dual wheel loading, and three different groundwater levels were induced in order to change the moisture content in the structures. The HVS was stopped regularly for carrying out response measurements from the instrumentation. The analysis is focussed on the response and the performance of the unbound aggregate layers to varying moisture levels in the pavement structure.