Prediction of Permanent Deformation of Pavement’s Unbounded Layers Based on Cyclic Triaxial Tests

Abstract

This research presents an analytical model for determining permanent deformation of pavement's sub-grade and unbound granular base and sub-base material due to cyclic traffic loading. The model is given for interpreting results of repeated load triaxial tests. It considers long term elastoplastic behavior and resilient behavior of sub-grade and unbound granular material. Permanent deformations are expressed as a function of the number of loading cycles and the spherical component and the deviatoric component of the repeated loading. The permanent axial deformation is given as a function of the resilient modulus and the secant modulus for different states of spherical and distortional stresses, and number of loading cycles. By analytical derivation it is presented that the normalized permanent axial strain can be expressed with the modulus values and the parameter D. The moduli are expressed as the functions of the spherical stress component and the distortional stress component. The magnitude of normalized permanent axial strain depends on the limit value of the resilient modulus and ratios between resilient and secant modulus. The parameter D gives the shape of the change of the normalized permanent axial strain with the number of cycles, and is a function of the change of modules with the number of cycles. The applicability of the presented model is demonstrated on the practical example of a repeated load triaxial test of sub-base granular material.