Asphalt Overlay and Subsurface Drainage of Broken and Seated Concrete Pavement

Abstract

This research was conducted to study subsurface drainage issues surrounding an asphalt overlay. The type of pavement that was examined in this study was a Superpave overlay on top of a Broken and Seated Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement (B&S JRCP). A finite-element model of the pavement was developed and a number of numerical analyses were performed to evaluate the movement of water in the pavement. The pavement drainage modeling was conducted using the SEEP/W 2002 in GEO-SLOPE program. A steady-state saturated flow analysis was used to obtain the flow path of the infiltrated water and flux quantity through the cross-sectional area in the pavement. This analysis was done for the pavement models with different layer arrangements and different drainage practices. The findings of this research revealed that high water permeability in the asphalt base and Superpave surface layers contributed to water flow into the pavement. This infiltration of water into the pavement structure is a serious issue that must be addressed in pavement drainage design. The broken and seated layer functions as an efficient drainage layer.