#53 KHRI Webinar Series Structural Evaluation of Flexible Pavement Using Benkelman Beam Deflectometer and Falling Weight Deflectometer by DR Anush K

Webinar Series Organized by Kerala Highway
Research Institute (KHRI)
Structural Evaluation of Flexible

Pavement Using Benkelman Beam
Deflectometer and Falling Weight
Deflectometer
Dr. Anush K. Chandrappa

Assistant Professor
School of Infrastructure
IIT Bhubaneswar
Email: akc@iitbbs.ac.in
INTRODUCTION
• Pavements deteriorate over time and requires
regular maintenance
• Strengthening is a type of maintenance activity to

increase the structural capacity of the pavement
• Strengthening involves providing an additional layer

of bituminous course over an existing pavement
• The thickness of the additional layer is determined

through deflection survey
• Deflection survey is done to determine structural

capacity 2
Dr. Anush K. Chandrappa, IIT BBS
INTRODUCTION
Deflection Survey / Study
Benkelman Beam Falling Weight

Deflectometer Deflectometer
(BBD) (FWD)
IRC: 81 IRC: 115 and

IRC:117
3
BBD Deflection
Survey
4
DEFLECTION MEASUREMENT
• Performance of flexible pavement is related to
the elastic deflection under wheel loads
P
Residual deflection
Total deflection
Rebound
deflection
• The elastic deflection depends on subgrade

condition, soil type, moisture content, drainage
conditions, quality of pavement courses and
pavement surface temperature
5
• Pavement deflection is measured using benkelman
beam deflectometer (BBD)
• Benkelman beam consist of a slender beam of

3.66 m long pivot at a distance of 2.44 m
6
• In order to determine the deflection of pavement, the
probe is placed between the dual wheels carrying
weight of 80 kN
• Rebound and residual deflections are measured
• Rebound deflection is related to the pavement

performance
• Residual deflection is related to the non-recoverable

deflection of the pavement
• Deflection survey is carried out to determine rebound

and residual deflections 7
8
• Deflection survey is carried out in two steps:
• Pavement condition survey
• Actual deflection measurements
• Pavement condition survey is required to select

the number of points for deflection measurement
over a given length of pavement
• Based on pavement condition, sections are

classified as good, fair and poor
• Rutting and cracking are used as criteria for

classification 9
Pavement Condition: Fair Pavement Condition: Poor

No Cracking OR cracking Extensive cracking and/or
Pavement Condition: Good
confined to single crack in rutting greater than 20 mm.
No Cracking and rutting
the wheel track with Sections with cracking
less than 10 mm
rutting between 10 – 20 exceeding 20% shall be
mm treated as failed.
length of each section shouldDr.be kept at a minimum

Anush K. Chandrappa, IIT BBS
of 1 km for overlay design
10
• Actual deflection measurement involves planning of the test
• On each road section, minimum of 10 points at an interval of

50 m in the outer wheel path should be marked
50.0 m 50.0 m
0.9 m 1.5 m 1.5 m

0.6 m
Lane Width – 3.5 m Lane Width > 3.5 m Four lane divided highway
11
• Canadian good roads association (CGRA Method)
is used for measuring deflection
• Load adopted is 8170 kg on SADW and tyre

pressure of 0.56 MPa
• Before starting of BBD survey, BBD should be

calibrated
12
Initial Reading
Intermediate
Reading
2.7 m
9.0 m
Reading is taken at each point when rate
Final Reading of deformation is less than 0.025
mm/min
Carneiro, F (1966)
13
14
• Measured deflections should be corrected for
temperature and moisture condition
• 35oC is considered to be standard temperature
• Correction for deflection due to temperature other

than 35oC shall be  0.01 mm for every one degree
Celsius.
• Positive for temperature less than 35oC and negative

for temperature more than 35oC
• Temperature is measured at a depth of 40 mm from

surface 15
• During Monsoon season pavements show high
deflections, which is the worst case
• Deflection measured during dry seasons should be

corrected for seasonal variations
• Correction for seasonal variation depends on:

• Subgrade soil (Sandy/gravelly; Low PI < 15; High PI
> 15)
• Field moisture content
• Annual rainfall (Low rainfall < 1300 mm; High rainfall
> 1300 mm)
• Field moisture content is determined from soil

sample Dr. Anush K. Chandrappa, IIT BBS
16
• Correction factors are obtained from the charts
• The deflections corrected for temperature shall be
multiplied with seasonal correction factors for final
corrected deflection
17
18
ANALYSIS OF DEFLECTION
• Overlay design for a given section is not based on
individual deflections
• Deflections are statistically analyzed to determine

mean, standard deviation and characteristic
deflection (CD)
• Mean deflection is determined from Initial,

Intermediate and Final deflection
• (Initial Deflection – Final Deflection) & (Initial

Deflection – Intermediate Deflection)
19
• Actual pavement deflection is twice the final
differential reading if differential reading
compare within 0.025 mm.
Rebound deflection = 2 * (Initial Deflection – Final

Deflection)
20
If differential reading does not compare within 0.025
mm, twice the final differential reading represents
apparent pavement deflection, actual pavement
deflection is determined as:
Rebound deflection = 2 * [(ID – FD) + leg constant *

(IMD-FD)]
Rebound deflection = 2 * [(ID – FD) + 2.91* (IMD-

FD)]
21
Carneiro, F (1966) 22
• Characteristic deflection is calculated as:
• For Major arterial roads (Like NH & SH)
Characteristic deflection = Mean + 2 * Standard
deviation
• For all other roads
Characteristic deflection = Mean + Standard
deviation
• Characteristic deflection will be used for overlay

thickness determination
23
IRC: 81-1997
24
DESIGN EXAMPLE
Deflections, mm X Y Z Analysis
Rebound Temperature Moisture Characteristic

ID IMD FD ID-FD ID-IMD IMD-FD X-Y
deflection correction Correction deflection, mm
7.010 6.420 6.300 0.710 0.590 0.120 0.120 2.118 2.078 2.910
7.710 7.400 7.290 0.420 0.310 0.110 0.110 1.480 1.440 2.016
7.700 7.080 6.940 0.760 0.620 0.140 0.140 2.335 2.295 3.213
7.140 6.790 6.680 0.460 0.350 0.110 0.110 1.560 1.520 2.128
7.520 7.160 7.030 0.490 0.360 0.130 0.130 1.737 1.697 2.375
14.360 13.740 13.640 0.720 0.620 0.100 0.100 2.022 1.982 2.775
3.77
6.920 6.450 6.220 0.700 0.470 0.230 0.230 2.739 2.699 3.778
5.190 4.650 4.530 0.660 0.540 0.120 0.120 2.018 1.978 2.770
8.790 8.530 8.430 0.360 0.260 0.100 0.100 1.302 1.262 1.767
11.010 10.740 10.640 0.370 0.270 0.100 0.100 1.322 1.282 1.795
7.150 6.740 6.630 0.520 0.410 0.110 0.110 1.680 1.640 2.296
3.550 3.410 3.300 0.250 0.140 0.110 0.110 1.140 1.100 1.540
Mean 2.447
std.dev 0.661
DBM Thickness = 0.7 * BM Thickness
25
FWD Deflection
Survey
26
INTRODUCTION
• Overlay design was initially performed using Benkelman
beam deflectometer (BBD)
• In BBD, static load is used to determine deflection

and is more labour intensive
• BBD method was developed considering thin pavement

layers such as Bituminous macadam and premix carpet
• The current pavements are thicker and have superior

layers such as dense bituminous macadam and
bituminous concrete
• Most importantly, Pavements in field encounter

dynamic and repetitive loads 27
INTRODUCTION
P
Pavement-2 Pavement-3
Pavement-1
28
INTRODUCTION
• Structural evaluation of pavements has been improved
considerably
• Impulse loading equipment are used to simulate

dynamic loads
• Falling weight deflectometer (FWD) - impulse type

loading equipment
• Load dropped from certain height and deflection is

measured
• IRC:115-2014 is the guideline for the structural

evaluation of flexible pavement using FWD
29
PRINCIPLE OF FWD
Pulse time – 20-30 millisecond
30
TYPES OF FWD
In-Vehicle FWD Towing Type FWD
31
• Test planning – determine number of deflections and
interval of data collection
Coefficient of Variation:
𝒛 ∗𝒄𝒗 𝟐 Good section = 15%
Fair section = 30%
𝑬𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓𝟐 Poor section = 45%
Number of Deflections Interval of Measurement
Good Section: Good Section:

95% Confidence level: n = 25 samples 95% Confidence level: interval = 40 m
90% Confidence level: n = 4 samples 90% Confidence level: interval = 250 m
Fair Section: Fair Section:
95% Confidence level: n = 98 samples 95% Confidence level: n = 10 m
Poor Section: Poor Section:
90% Confidence level: n = 33 samples 90% Confidence level: n = 30 m 32
• Deflections are measured at the wheel paths
• The FWD is positioned at the location where

deflection has to be measured
• The loading plate is lowered at the point of deflection
measurement
• Frame holding the sensors / geophones is lowered and
brought in contact with pavement surface
• Mass is raised and dropped on the loading plate to
check the value of load (Test drop)
• After test drop, load is dropped three times and
deflection is recorded
33
• A test pit is made at every 500 m in staggered
manner to determine the thickness of the existing
pavement crust
34
ANALYSIS OF DATA
Data analysis includes:
• Identification of homogeneous sections

• Back-calculation of layer moduli
• Applying correction for temperature
• Applying correction for seasonal variation
• Determining remaining life of pavement
35
ANALYSIS OF DATA
• Homogeneous sections are identified using cumulative
difference approach (CDA)
• Surface Curvature Index (SCI) and other parameters
2500 6000
Based on SCI Based on Thickness
2000 5000
4000
Cumulative Difference
1500
Cumulative Difference 3000
1000
2000
500 1000
0 0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0
Chainage, km
Chainage, km
36
ANALYSIS OF DATA
• Layer moduli is BACK-CALCULATED based on the
deflection obtained from FWD
• Thicknesses of different layers of existing

pavement crust is required to back-calculate
• There are several applications which can

backcalculate modulus using deflections
• IRC:115-2014 recommends KGPBACK to determine

back-calculated modulus
• KGPBACK works on the principle of Genetic

algorithm 37
ANALYSIS OF DATA
• Seed Moduli Range:
• Good: BT= 750 – 3000 MPa; Granular = 100 – 500
MPa; Subgrade = 20 – 100 MPa
• Fair and Poor: BT = 400 – 1500 MPa; Granular = 100
– 500 MPa; Subgrade = 20 – 100 MPa
Assume of section to be fair

L1: 80 mm – Bituminous Layer E = 400 – 1500 MPa
L2: 380 mm – Granular Layer E = 100 – 500 MPa
L3: Subgrade
E = 20-100 MPa
Deflections: D0 = 0.6016, D300 = 0.3615, D600 = 0.2123, D900 =

0.1250, D1200 = 0.0756, D1500 = 0.0527,
D1800 = 0.0414 38
ANALYSIS OF DATA
Seed Values:
𝐸 1 𝜇2 He1 = 143.16 mm
𝐻 ℎ ∗ ∗ L1 = 1360.1 MPa; L2 = 237.3 MPa
𝐸 1 𝜇1 He2 = 705.05 mm
L3 = 97.0 MPa
1  𝜎𝑎 1 𝑧 𝑧
𝑑 2 1  1 2 ∗ 1
𝐸 𝑧 𝑎 𝑎
1
𝑎
1  𝜎𝑎 1 𝑧 𝑧
𝑑 1 2 ∗ 1
𝐸 𝑧 𝑎 𝑎
1
𝑎
𝜎𝑎 1 1
𝑑 , 1 𝜇 ∗ 𝑧 2 1 𝜇 ∗
2𝐸 𝑟 𝑧 𝑟 𝑧
𝐷 𝐷
𝑅𝑀𝑆𝐸
𝑛
Kheradmandi and Modarres, 2018 39

ANALYSIS OF DATA
0.6016 0.3615 0.2123 0.1250 0.0756 0.0527 0.0414
RMSE =
0.609 0.3401 0.1943 0.1316 0.0982 0.078 0.0647 0.0191 mm
0.70
0.60 Measured Calculated

0.50
Deflections, mm
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
0 2 4 6 8
Sensor Number 40
ANALYSIS OF DATA
• 35degC is considered to be standard pavement
temperature
• Field pavement temperature higher than 35degC

results in lower back-calculated modulus
• Field pavement temperature lower than 35degC

results in higher back-calculated modulus
T1 = 35degC, T2 = Field Pavement temperature

41
ANALYSIS OF DATA
• Seasonal moisture variation correction factor is
applied to determine the modulus considering worst
subgrade condition
• Subgrade gets weakest when it is wet post-

monsoon
• Moisture correction is applied for granular and

subgrade modulus
42
ANALYSIS OF DATA
• For a given homogeneous section, number of modulus values
for each layer are back-calculated
• For each layer and for a given homogeneous section, 15th

percentile moduli for each layer is determined as
representative moduli for that layer.
BT Modulus, MPa Granular Layer, MPa Subgrade Layer, MPa
1158.3 251.9 100.0
1420.1 500.0 100.0
1428.4 499.9 99.9
1448.1 352.7 100.0
1478.4 495.4 100.0
1471.9 297.4 100.0
1337.1 486.3 100.0
1368.2 465.3 99.9
1422.1 481.7 100.0
1438.0 500.0 95.0
1474.2 335.1 100.0
1446.4 264.0 88.4
1461.8 478.9 100.0
1495.6 496.8 99.9
1488.3 478.6 100.0
945.6 208.4 100.0
1204.7 499.9 100.0 43
1398.9 496.6 100.0
ANALYSIS OF DATA
• 15th moduli is determined for each layer corresponding
to each homogeneous section
• Moduli and thickness are fed in IIT Pave to determine

rutting and fatigue strains
• Rutting and fatigue strains are used to determine the

remaining life
𝟑.𝟖𝟗 𝟎.𝟖𝟓𝟒
𝟒
𝟏 𝟏
𝑵𝒇 𝟎. 𝟕𝟏𝟏 ∗ 𝟏𝟎 ∗ ∗
𝜺𝒕 𝑴𝒓
𝟒.𝟓𝟑𝟑𝟕
𝟖
𝟏
𝑵𝒓 𝟏. 𝟒𝟏 ∗ 𝟏𝟎 ∗
𝜺𝒗
44
ANALYSIS OF DATA
15th 15th Bituminous Granular
Subgrade Fatigue Rutting
percentile Percentile layer Layer Tensile Rutting
HS Modulus, Life, Life,
Bituminous Granular thickness, thickness, Strain Strain
MPa msa msa
Modulus, MPa Modulus, MPa mm mm
1 953.83 299.36 82.53 90 373 347.8 437.6 5.79 23.85
2 1232.37 446.77 99.82 80 380 248.4 328.4 17.19 87.66
3 1277.52 282.36 99.91 90 380 340.3 386.5 4.91 41.88
4 1232.65 414.85 99.90 92 372 252.2 336.6 16.2 78.38
5 1230.28 415.42 93.75 92 373 251.3 345.2 16.46 69.91
6 954.30 341.09 87.07 94 380 310.2 387.5 9.01 41.4
7 981.00 242.10 82.79 92 420 401.8 412 3.24 31.35
Design Traffic for Overlay = 50 msa

Allowable Fatigue Strain = 198.475 microns
Allowable Rutting Strain = 371.694 microns
Pavement is modeled as 4-layer system to find overlay

thickness
45
ANALYSIS OF DATA
Critical Fatigue
Strain = 193.4
microns
Critical Rutting
Strain = 277.2
microns
46
References
• Video link for Calibrating FWD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4bQfF9re2g
• Kheradmandi. N., Modarres. A. (2018). Precision of back-

calculation analysis and independent parameters based models in
estimating the pavement layers modulus-Field and experimental
study, Construction and Building Materials, Vol. 171, pp. 598-610
• ASTM D4694 (2006) Standard Test Method for Deflections

with a Falling Weight Type Impulse Load Device
• Carneiro. F (1966) Benkelman Beam – Auxiliary Instrument of

the Maintenance Engineer
47

#53 KHRI Webinar Series Structural Evaluation of Flexible Pavement Using Benkelman Beam Deflectometer and Falling Weight Deflectometer by DR Anush K

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Webinar Series Organized by Kerala Highway

Research Institute (KHRI)

Structural Evaluation of Flexible

Dr. Anush K. Chandrappa

• Strengthening is a type of maintenance activity to

• Strengthening involves providing an additional layer

• The thickness of the additional layer is determined

• Deflection survey is done to determine structural

Benkelman Beam Falling Weight

IRC: 81 IRC: 115 and

• The elastic deflection depends on subgrade

• Benkelman beam consist of a slender beam of

• Rebound and residual deflections are measured

• Rebound deflection is related to the pavement

• Residual deflection is related to the non-recoverable

• Deflection survey is carried out to determine rebound

• Pavement condition survey is required to select

• Based on pavement condition, sections are

• Rutting and cracking are used as criteria for

Pavement Condition: Fair Pavement Condition: Poor

length of each section shouldDr.be kept at a minimum

• On each road section, minimum of 10 points at an interval of

0.9 m 1.5 m 1.5 m

• Load adopted is 8170 kg on SADW and tyre

• Before starting of BBD survey, BBD should be

• 35oC is considered to be standard temperature

• Correction for deflection due to temperature other

• Positive for temperature less than 35oC and negative

• Temperature is measured at a depth of 40 mm from

• Deflection measured during dry seasons should be

• Correction for seasonal variation depends on:

• Field moisture content is determined from soil

• Deflections are statistically analyzed to determine

• Mean deflection is determined from Initial,

• (Initial Deflection – Final Deflection) & (Initial

Rebound deflection = 2 * (Initial Deflection – Final

Rebound deflection = 2 * [(ID – FD) + leg constant *

Rebound deflection = 2 * [(ID – FD) + 2.91* (IMD-

• Characteristic deflection will be used for overlay

Rebound Temperature Moisture Characteristic

DBM Thickness = 0.7 * BM Thickness

• In BBD, static load is used to determine deflection

• BBD method was developed considering thin pavement

• The current pavements are thicker and have superior

• Most importantly, Pavements in field encounter

• Impulse loading equipment are used to simulate

• Falling weight deflectometer (FWD) - impulse type

• Load dropped from certain height and deflection is

• IRC:115-2014 is the guideline for the structural

Pulse time – 20-30 millisecond

In-Vehicle FWD Towing Type FWD

Number of Deflections Interval of Measurement

Good Section: Good Section:

• The FWD is positioned at the location where

• Identification of homogeneous sections

• Surface Curvature Index (SCI) and other parameters

• Thicknesses of different layers of existing

• There are several applications which can

• IRC:115-2014 recommends KGPBACK to determine