Empirical Models for Permanent Deformation of Subgrade Soils from the Data Collected at the Pavement Subgrade Performance Study

Abstract

AbstractA national pooled-fund study supported by 19 states, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was conducted at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Hanover, New Hampshire. The study, titled the Pavement Subgrade Performance Study (PSPS), aimed to develop failure criteria and prediction models for permanent deformation in the subgrade soil that incorporate the effects of soil type and moisture content. Full-scale pavement structures were built with the same crushed stone base and asphalt concrete surface layers on top of five subgrade soils. The soils were placed and compacted at three in situ moisture contents: the optimum and two other contents above the optimum. The pavements were subjected to full-scale accelerated pavement testing. An extensive volume of response and performance data was collected in the study. This paper presents the development of empirical models for permanent deformation of subgr...