ASPHALT INSTITUTE METHOD

FOR
FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT DESIGN

Dr. Padma Bahadur Shahi

GENERAL DESIGN CONCEPT FOR PAVEMENT
DESIGN
 TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
 In pavement design, number of repetition of each axle load group
during the design period.
 The initial daily traffic in two directions over all traffic lanes must
be multiplied by directional and lane distribution factors to
obtain the initial traffic on design lane.
 The traffic used for design is the average traffic for design period, s
initial traffic must be multiplied by growth factor.
 If ni is the number of load repetitions to be used in in design for ith
load group, then

ESAL  (i 1 pi Fi )( ADT ) 0 (T )( A)(G )( D)( L)(365)(Y )

m
TRAFFIC ANALYSIS
 (no)i is the initial number of repetitions per day for the ith load
group, G is the growth factor, D is the directional distributional
factor, L is the lane distribution factor, Y is the design period in
years.
 If the design is based on the equivalent 80 kN single axle load,
then the initial number of repetitions per day for the ith load
group can be computed by:

(no )i  ( pi Fi ) ( ADT ) 0 (T )( A)
pi is the percentage of load repetitions for ith load group, Fi is the equivalent axle load
factor for the load group , (ADT)o is the average daily traffic at the start of the design
period, T is the percentage of truck in the ADT, and A is the average number of axle
per truck.
 The equivalent axle load for the design lane is

ESAL  (i 1 pi Fi )( ADT ) 0 (T )( A)(G )( D)( L)(365)(Y )

m

Truck Factor : number of 80 kN single axle load applications per

truck , can be expressed as:

T f  (i 1 pi Fi )( A)
m

Equivalent Single Axle Load

ESAL  T f ( ADT ) 0 (T )(G )( D)( L)(365)(Y )

 AVERAGE DAILY TRUCK TRAFFIC
 The minimum traffic information required for the pavement
design is the average daily truck traffic (ADTT) at the start of
design period. It may be expressed as a percentage of ADT or as
an actual value.
 The traffic count must be adjusted for daily and seasonal
variation to obtain AADT.
 If the actual traffic date is not available, distribution of AADT on
the different categories of highway can be used from the existing
database.
 DISTRIBUTION OF TRUCKS IN DIFFERENT CLASS OF
HIGHWAY IN USA:
Percentage of trucks
Truck class freeways Principle arterial
Single unit truck:
2 axle four tire 66 67 84
2 axle 6 tire 12 15 9
3 axle or more 4 3 2
All single units 83 85 95
Multiple unit trucks
4 axle or less 5 3 2
5 axle 13 12 3
6 or more axle <1 <1 <1
All multiple units 18 15 5
All trucks 100 100 100
 TRUCK FACTOR 1 lb=4.45 N

Axle Load, lb EAL Factor Number of axle ESAL

Single axle
Under 3000 .002 0 0
3000-6999 .005 1 .005
7000-7999 .032 6 .192
8000-11999 .087 144 12.528
12000-15999 .360 16 5.760
16000-29999 5.3890 1 5.389
Tandem axle
Under 6000 0.0100 0 0
6000-11999 0.010 14 .14
12000-17999 .0440 21 .924
18000-23999 .1480 44 .512
24000-29999 .4260 42 17.892
30000-32000 .7530 44 33.132
32001-32500 .8850 21 18.585
32501-33999 1.002 101 101.202
34000-35999 1.230 43 52.890
ESAL for all trucks weighed 255.151
Truck Factor (255.151/165) 1.5464
 TOTAL GROWTH FACTOR
 Asphalt Institute method total growth factor
(1  r ) n
1
GF  ( G ) * (Y ) 
r
 To determine annual growth rate following factors should be
considered:
 Attracted or diverted traffic: due to improvement of existing
pavement
 Normal traffic growth: due to increase number or use of motor
vehicles
 Generated traffic: due to vehicle trips that would not have been
made if new facility had not been constructed
 Development traffic: due to changes in landuse as a result of new
facility
 EXAMPLE:
 For annual growth rate 3.5% and a design period of 30 years,
compute the growth factors:
 LANE DISTRIBUTION FACTOR
 For two lane highways, the lane in each direction is the design lane, so
that lane distribution factor is 100%.
 Truck distribution for multiple lane highway: table
TRUCK DISTRIBUTION FOR MULTILANE
HIGHWAY

Two lanes in each Three or more lanes in each

direction direction
One way Inner Outer Inner Central outer
ADT
2000 6 94 6 12 82
4000 12 88 6 18 76
6000 15 85 7 21 72
8000 18 82 7 23 70
20000 25 75 7 30 63
60000 34 66 8 39 53
 SUMMARY OF PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL TRUCK
TRAFFIC IN DESIGN LANE

Number of traffic lanes in two direction % of trucks in design lane

2 50
4 45
6 or more 40

Number of traffic lanes in each % of 80 kN ESAL in design lane

direction
1 100
2 80-100
3 60-80
4 50-75
 ASPHALT INSTITUTE METHOD
 It has pavement thickness design manual which assumes:
 Asphalt pavement are multilayered elastic system.

 the wheel load W, is transmitted to the pavement surface through

the tire at a uniform vertical pressure Po. The stress are then spread
through the pavement structure to produce a reduced maximum
vertical stress P1, at the sub-grade surface.
 The wheel load W, causes the pavement structure to deflect, creating
both compressive and tensile stresses in the pavement structure.
 In developing the design procedure, AI engineers calculated induced
horizontal tensile strains, t, at the bottom of the asphalt layer and
vertical compressive strain c, at the top of the sub-grade.
 Computer program DAMA or SW1 for calculating thiskness using
these criteria.
SPREAD OF WHEEL LOAD PRESSURE THROUGH
PAVEMENT STRUCTURE
PAVEMENT DEFLECTION RESULT IN TENSILE AND COMPRESSIVE
STRESSES
SUB-GRADE EVALUATION

 CBR
 Resilient Modulus
RESILIENT MODULUS
 Resilience is the property of a material to absorb energy when
it is deformed elastically and then, upon unloading to have this
energy recovered. In other words, it is the maximum energy per
unit volume that can be elastically stored. It is represented by
the area under the curve in the elastic region in the Stress-
Strain diagram.
 The Resilient Modulus (MR) is a subgrade material stiffness
test.  A material's resilient modulus is actually an estimate
of its modulus of elasticity (E).  While the modulus of
elasticity is stress divided by strain (e.g., the slope of the stress-
strain diagram the linear elastic range) for a slowly applied
load, resilient modulus is stress divided by strain for rapidly
applied loads – like those experienced by pavements. 
 RESILIENT MODULUS
Subgrade Strength Evaluation
 The characteristic material property of subgrade soils used for pavement design is
the resilient modulus (MR). The resilient modulus is defined as being a measure
of the elastic property of a soil recognizing selected non-linear characteristics.
Methods for the determination of MR are described in AASHTO
 T294-92 test method. For many years, standard California Bearing Ratio (CBR)
tests were utilized to measure the subgrade strength parameter as a design input.
 For roadbed materials, the AASHTO Guide [AASHTO 93] recommends that the
resilient modulus be established based on laboratory testing of representative
samples in stress and moisture conditions simulating the primary moisture
seasons. Alternatively, the seasonal resilient modulus values may be determined
based on correlations with soil properties.
 Since the resilient modulus test equipment is currently not present in many
laboratories, researchers have developed correlations to converting CBR values to
approximate MR values. The correlation considered reasonable for fine grained
soils with a soaked CBR of 10 or less is:
 MR (MPa) = 10.3 * ( CBR) [AASHTO 93]
 INTRODUCTION

 It is the process of determining the thickness of pavement

structures consisting of Asphalt Concrete Surface, Emulsified
Asphalt Concrete (with surface treatment), Asphalt concrete base,
emulsified asphalt concrete base and untreated aggregate base or
sub base.
DESIGN PROCEDURE
1. Input data:
 Traffic loading, ESA
 Sub-grade resilient modulus, Mr.
 Surface and base type

2. Determine design thickness for the specific conditions

described by the input data.
3. Prepare stage construction design
4. Make economic analysis of various solutions.
5. Select the final design
 FLOW DIAGRAM

Measure of
Determine the initial traffic and Estimate Sub-
expected growth rate converted Select materials
grade resilient
to ESA for design period modulus

Determine Design thickness

combinations

Stage construction Options

Economic analysis

Final Design
AI METHOD FOR PAVEMENT DESIGN
 MINIMUM THICKNESS OF ASPHALT CONCRETE OVER
UNTREATED AGGREGATE BASE

Traffic, ESA Traffic conditions Minimumthickness,

10,000 Light traffic parking lots, light traffic 75 mm

roads
10, 000 – 100, 000 Medium truck traffic 100 mm

More than 100, 000 Medium to heavy traffic 125 mm

 EQUIVALENT DEPTH RATION OF ASPHALT
CONCRETE AND BASE

1/ 3
tb  Eac 
 
t ac  Eb 
 EXAMPLE
 The result of the sub-grade soil in CBR at seven locations obtained in
a certain stretch of the road are given below. We are required to adopt
CBR values as 85 percentile.
S/N Chainage Test CBR result, %
1 0+050 11
2 0+350 7
3 0+500 7.5
4 0+650 8
5 0+800 4
6 0+950 6
7 1+500 5
 EXAMPLE
 Four lane/ two lane highway to be designed:
 Annual Growth rate 6%
 design period 12 years
 Construction period 2 years
 Modulus of elasticity of asphalt concrete in 2000MPa
 Modulus of untreated crushed aggregate base is 250 Mpa
 Modulus of untreated granular sub-base is 100 MPa
Truck Bus                                    
Car/Jeep/Taxi

Auto Rikshaw

Motor Cycle
Power triller

Animal cart
Rikshaw
Tractor

Bicycle
3-Axle
2-Axle

Large

Micro

Utility
Mini
Mini

124 243 48 342 98 249 210 45 114 166 8 1440 39 92 2101

Axle load factors for ESA

3-axle truck 2-axle truck Mini truck Large bus Minibus

10.54 4.5 .97 1.38 .38
TRAFFIC ANALYSIS

 Growth factor calculation

 ESA for base period

 Expected cumulative ESA for design period

 85 PERCENTILE CBR DETERMINATION
120
Percentage equal to greater than in %

100

80

60

40

20

0
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Sub-grade CBR, %