Experimental and Field Investigation of Road Mesh Reinforcement in Flexible Pavements

Abstract

The most acceptable combination of layer thickness and types of materials used in the different layers of pavement along with an estimated traffic to be carried, during the service life of the pavement, complete the flexible pavement design process. In addition to satisfying the tolerable criteria for fatigue and rutting mechanisms, the pavements are subjected to much higher load intensities than that of the estimated traffic during design. This increases the importance of maintaining the quality of base layer materials as base layer plays a major role in maintaining the performance of unpaved roads. Due to the absence of confinement in the lateral direction, there is a possibility of permanent deformation when a vertical load is applied. To restrict both resilient and permanent deformations, it is essential to consider geosynthetic reinforcement in pavement engineering. The use of road mesh manufactured from double twisted steel wire mesh is studied as a possible reinforcement material for carrying the increased traffic loads, and experiments are conducted in this direction. The primary objective of this study is to reduce the thickness of the base layer and to improve the performance of the base layer under heavy loading conditions. Static and repeated plate load tests were conducted on unreinforced as well as road mesh-reinforced base layer. The results of the experimental studies showed better performance of road mesh-reinforced base layer by reducing the permanent deformations. The improvement in the performance of reinforced sections was also measured in terms of resilient deformation and predicted resilient modulus from resilient deformations. The studies also include the role of reinforcement in improving the pressure distribution in the base layer and the pressure above the subgrade level in terms of stress distribution angle. The improved performance of reinforced sections was reflected in the field studies by conducting FWD tests and calculating LCR from those results.