GEOTECHNICAL ASPECTS OF PAVEMENT ENGINEERING

Geotechnical Aspects of Pavement Engineering will introduce the field of pavement engineering, including field exploration and testing methods. The proposed text will be a useful handbook for practicing engineers for the selection of appropriate field-testing methods for characterizing materials. The book will also cover the appropriate treatment and/or design methods applicable to various field conditions during pavement foundation construction. In most situations, traditional geotechnical exploration and testing methods are used to characterize the existing subgrade conditions. However, with the introduction of new Mechanistic-Empirical (ME) pavement design methods, there is a need for upgraded ways to characterize these existing materials to facilitate the accurate prediction of future pavement conductions. The geotechnical aspects of pavement engineering differ from traditional geotechnical engineering due to the differences in the load application mechanism. Traditional geotechnical engineering generally deals with static, concentrated or distributed, high magnitude loading situations, while pavement structures mostly deal with repeatedly applied, fast moving and dynamic loading situations. Additionally, the effects of environmental and climatic factors play a major role in the condition of pavement structures due to their proximity and exposure to the atmosphere. Geotechnical Aspects of Pavement Engineering focuses specifically on topics such as material characterization methods, material properties for pavement designs, environmental and climate effects, design details for unusual field conditions and construction and design verification. With the introduction of the new ME pavement design methods, an emphasis on collecting reliable material's property data has been recently observed. This is due to the ability to specify material inputs, thereby giving engineers the ability to reliably predict pavement performance when properly calibrated performance models are used. The majority of the materials used above the subgrade line of a pavement structure are engineered; hence they can be composed and tested for accurate material properties. However, subgrade materials show considerable variability from one location another in terms of their engineering properties. Therefore, accurate and easy to use methods for characterizing pavement subgrade material properties have been gaining popularity. This book is unique, in that it will be the only one of it's kind primarily devoted to the coverage of the geotechnical aspects of pavement engineering.