• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.8 no.2 s.28
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• pp.37-47
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• 2006

The structural response and performance of a flexible pavement can be improved through the use of geogrids as base course reinforcement. Current ongoing research at the University of illinois has focused on the development of a geogrid base reinforcement mechanistic model for the analysis of reinforced pavements. This model is based on the finite element methodology and considers not only the nonlinear stress-dependent pavement foundation but also the isotropic and anisotropic behavior of base/subbase aggregates for predicting pavement critical responses. An axisymmetric finite element model was developed to employ a three-noded axisymmetric membrane element for modeling geogrid reinforcement. The soil/aggregate-geogrid interface was modeled by the three-noded membrane element and the neighboring six-noded no thickness interface elements. To validate the developed mechanistic model, the commercial finite element program $ABAQUS^{TM}$ was used to generate pavement responses as analysis results for simple cases with similar linear elastic material input properties. More sophisticated cases were then analyzed using the mechanistic model considering the nonlinear and anisotropic modulus property inputs in the base/subbase granular layers. This paper will describe the details of the developed mechanistic model and the effectiveness of geogrid reinforcement when used in different quality unbound aggregate base/subbase layers.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.195-201
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• 2009

In this paper, the critical strains for pavement design were calculated from both Layered Elastic Program (LEP) and Finite Element Method (FEM) and the case studies which give similar critical responses were compared. Although FEM has been realized as a superior model, LEP is more favorable to pavement design due to its simplicity and thus, the technique to calculate the correct critical responses using LEP is significant. This study showed that KENLAYER can possibly estimate the critical responses close to ones obtained from TTIPAVE, which considers nonlinear cross-anisotropic behavior of unbound base materials, by adjusting the stress point locations.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.187-194
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• 2009

This paper presents the development of transfer function accounting for cross-anisotropic behavior of aggregate base material for the pavement thickness design. The stress distributions predicted by nonlinear cross-anisotropic finite element program were realistic by eliminating excessive tensile stress at the bottom of the base layer and the critical pavement responses predicted by nonlinear cross-anisotropic model are higher than those predicted by linear or nonlinear isotropic models (Kim, 2004, Kim et at., 2005). Since the previously developed transfer functions such as Asphalt Institute and Chevron models, etc. were based on the critical responses obtained from linear isotropic model, those equations are not appropriate for the thickness design nonlinear cross-anisotropic base behavior. Therefore, the development of usable transfer functions for nonlinear cross-anisotropic model is ever more important. When the newly developed transfer functions were compared with AASHTO method for the thickness design, the newly developed transfer functions produce approximately 25mm reduced UAB thickness in AASHTO thickness design and this illustrates that linear isotropic model results in more conservative pavement design.