SIMULATING THE PERFORMANCE OF PAVEMENT SECTIONS CONTAINING TREATED AND UNTREATED PERMEABLE BASES USING THE MEPDG SOFTWARE

Abstract

In an effort to provide subsurface drainage in rigid pavement structure, various types of bases ranging from unbound open-graded bases like the Michigan 4G to bound base types like Asphalt Treated Permeable Bases (ATPB) and Cement Treated Permeable Bases (CTPB) are available. The provision of subsurface drainage will increase the overall initial construction cost of the pavement and as such it is expected that the increased cost would be offset by improved pavement performance and reduction in the pavement’s life cycle cost. A computer simulation of the performance of pavement sections containing different types of permeable bases/drainage layers under different loading and environmental conditions was carried out using the Mechanistic Empirical Design Guide (MEPDG) software. Results of the performance simulations show that the predicted pavement is not sensitive to the presence of a permeable basecourse within the pavement structure. This is in sharp contrast to field results of pavement sections containing permeable basecourses which have shown that the increase drainability as a result of the presence of a permeable basecourses have lead to a marked increase in the performance of these pavements.