FACTORS 

AFFECTING PAVEMENT DESIGN

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Factor Affecting Pavement Design
 Traffic and Loading
 Environment
 Pavement Component Materials
 Failure Criteria
 Reliability
 Economic Assessment (Life Cycle Cost)
 Pavement Management System

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Traffic and Loading
 Axle Load, Axle Configuration
 Tyre Pressure/ Contact Pressure
 Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF) of Equivalent Axle Load Factor (EALF)
 Number of Repetitions
 Design Life
 Traffic Growth Rate
 Vehicle Speed

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Axle Load and Axle Configuration
 Standard Single Axle Load – 80 kN (Rear axle with dual tyres on 
each side)
 Legal Single Axle Load – 100 kN
 Multi‐axle Vehicles (Tandem, Tridem, Quad axles)
 If the axle load is not 80 kN or consists of tandem or tridem axles,
it must be converted to an 80 kN single‐axle load by an equivalent
axle load factor (EALF) .
 The number of repetitions under each single or multiple axle load
must be multiplied by its EALF to obtain the equivalent effect
based on an 80 kN single axle load.

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Axle Configurations

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Axle Configurations

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Equivalent Axle Load Factor
 If the pavement structure fails with N1 number of repetition of
load W1 and for the same failure criteria if it requires N2 number of
repetition of load W2, then W1N1 and W2N2 are considered
equivalent.
 As a rule‐of‐thumb, the damage caused by a particular load is
roughly related to the load by a power of four (for reasonably
strong pavement surfaces).

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Equivalent Axle Load Factor

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 Airfield loads

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 Airfield loads

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Aircraft load information
 Design load
 Take‐off load
 Heaviest condition
 Number Mass
317 pax 31 700 kg
195 000 liter 156 000 kg

357 pax 35 700 kg

216 843 liter 173 474 kg

253 pax 25 300 kg

141 500 liter 113 200 kg

250 pax 25 000 kg

155 040 liter 124 032 kg

157 pax 15 700 kg

26 035 liter 20 828 kg

120 pax 12 000 kg

23 860 liter 19 088 kg

PAX + baggage = 100 kg

Fuel = 0.8kg/l – lighter than water – refer to refinery figure
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Deformation under Repeated Loading

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Number of Load Repetitions
 The deformation of pavement due to a single application of axle
load may be small but due to repeated application of load there
would be accumulation of unrecovered or permanent deformation
which results in failure of pavement.
 A summation of the equivalent effects of all axle loads during the
design period results in an cumulative equivalent single‐axle load
(ESAL), which is the single traffic parameter for design purposes.

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Design Traffic Estimation

E80s (or 80 kN ESALs) per Heavy Vehicle
Number of Load Repetitions
 Find the vehicle damage factor for the axle load spectrum from a survey data 
as presented in the following table:

Axle load Range (Tons) Percentage Frequency
19‐17 03
17‐15 18
15‐13 28
13‐11 30
11‐09 10
09‐07 11
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Design Life
 15 to 20 years for a conventional flexible pavement
 30 years for concrete pavements
 Perpetual or long lasting pavements may be deigned for a life of
more than 50 years

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 Design Life‐ Analysis Period
CONSTRUCTED
RIDING QUALITY
RESURFACING STRUCTURAL
RIDING QUALITY (PSI)

REHABILITATION

TERMINAL
RIDING QUALITY

STRUCTURAL DESIGN PERIOD

(10 - 20 YEAR)
ANALYSIS PERIOD
(20 - 30 YEAR)

TIME/TRAFFIC

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Traffic Growth Rate
 Used to predict the traffic at the end of design life
 Depends on many factors such as GDP, population, per‐capita
income etc. of the area
 Time Series data can also be used to estimate traffic growth rate.
 Vehicle registration data can also be used to estimate growth rate

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 Contact Area and Contact Pressure
 In the mechanistic method of design, it is necessary to know the
contact area between tire and pavement, so the axle load can be
assumed to be uniformly distributed over the contact area.
 The size of contact area depends on the tyre pressure. For low
pressure tyres contact area is more compared to high pressure
tyres.
 For high pressure tyres with less contact area, the contact
pressure is usually high. However, in pavement design, the
contact pressure is generally assumed to be equal to the tyre
pressure

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03‐02‐2021 22
 Contact Area and Contact Pressure

• For low inflation pressures, wall of the tire is in • For high inflation pressures, wall of tire is
compression in tension
• Contact pressure is greater than tire pressure • Contact pressure is less than tire pressure

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Contact Area

Load 100kN‐Pressure 0.70 MPa

Actual Tyre Imprint 0.5227

Where Ac = Area of Contact

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Contact Area
 The semi‐elliptical contact area was used previously by PCA
(1966) for the design of rigid pavements.
 However the current PCA (1984) method is based on the finite
element procedure, and a rectangular area is assumed with
length 0.8712L and width 0.6L, which has the same area of
0.5227L2.

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Contact Area
 These contact areas are not axisymmetric and cannot be used
with the layered theory. Therefore, when the layered theory is
used for flexible pavement design, it is assumed that each tire
has a circular contact area.
 This assumption is not correct, but the error incurred is believed
to be small.
 To simplify the analysis of flexible pavements, a single circle with
the same contact area as the duals is frequently used to
represent a set of dual tires, instead of using two circular areas.

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Contact Area
 This practice usually results in a more conservative design, but
could become un‐conservative for thin asphalt surface because
the horizontal tensile strain at the bottom of asphalt layer under
the larger contact radius of single wheel is smaller than that
under the smaller contact radius of dual wheels.
 For rigid pavements, it is more reasonable to use a larger circular
area to represent a set of duals.

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Contact Area
 Example: Show the dimensions of the most realistic contact
areas on flexible and rigid pavements for a standard axle load of
80 kN with a tyre pressure of 552 kPa. If the contact area on rigid
pavement is assumed as rectangle, what should be the
dimension of the rectangular area?
 Solution:

L = 263 mm
0.6 L = 158 mm
0.8712 L = 229 mm

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Equivalent Single Wheel Load
 To carry maximum load within the specified limit and to carry
greater load, dual wheel, or dual tandem assembly is often used.
 Equivalent single wheel load (ESWL) is the single wheel load
having the same contact pressure, which produces same value of
maximum stress, deflection, tensile stress or contact pressure at
the desired depth.

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Equivalent Single Wheel Load

Boyd and Foster's method 

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Equivalent Single Wheel Load
 Example: A set of dual tires has a total load 2Pd of 40 kN a
contact radius a of 114 mm and a center to center tire spacing Sd
of 343 mm. Determine the ESWL by Boyd and Foster's method
for a 343‐mm thick pavement .

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 Vehicle Speed
 If the viscoelastic theory is used, speed is directly related to the
duration of loading.
 Therefore, the resilient modulus of each paving material should be
properly selected to be commensurate with the vehicle speed.
 Generally, the greater the speed, the larger the modulus, and the
smaller the strains in the pavement.

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Environment
 Temperature
 Precipitation/ Rainfall

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Effect of Temperature
 The effect of temperature on asphalt pavements is different from
that on concrete pavements .
 Temperature affects the resilient modulus of asphalt layers and
induces curling of concrete slabs.
 In cold climates, the resilient moduli of un‐stabilized materials
also vary with the freeze–thaw cycles

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Temperature effect on Asphalt
 The elastic and viscoelastic properties of HMA are affected
significantly by pavement temperature .
 At high temperatures, HMA becomes soft making it prone to
rutting, whereas at low temperatures, it becomes stiff making it
prone to fatigue cracking.
 Severe low temperature can also cause thermal cracks in asphalt
pavements.

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Temperature effect on Concrete Slab
 The temperature gradient in concrete pavements affects not only
the curling stress but also the slab–subgrade contact.
 During the day, when the temperature at top is higher than that at
bottom, the slab curls down so that its interior may not be in
contact with the subgrade.
 At night, when the temperature at top is lower than that at
bottom, the slab curls upward so that its edge and corner may be
out of contact with the subgrade .

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Temperature effect on Concrete Slab
 The loss of subgrade contact affects the stresses in concrete due
to wheel loads.
 The change between maximum and minimum temperatures also
determines the joint and crack openings and affects the efficiency
of load transfer .

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Temperature effect on Concrete Slab

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Frost Penetration
 Frost penetration results in a stronger subgrade in the winter but a
much weaker subgrade in the spring.
 The most detrimental effect of frost penetration occurs during the
spring breakup period, when the ice melts and the subgrade is in a
saturated condition.
 It is desirable to protect the subgrade by using non‐frost‐
susceptible materials within the zone of frost penetration .
 If this cannot be done, the design method should take into
consideration the weakening of the subgrade during spring
breakup .
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Precipitation
 The precipitation from rain and snow affects the quantity of
surface water infiltrating into the subgrade and the location of the
groundwater table .
 Every effort should be made to improve drainage and alleviate the
detrimental effect of water.
 If water from rainfalls can be drained out within a short time, its
effect can be minimized, even in regions of high precipitation .
 If proper drainage cannot be provided, smaller elastic moduli must
be selected for the component layers affected by poor drainage.

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Pavement Component Materials
 In the mechanistic‐empirical methods of design, the properties of
materials must be specified, so that the responses of the
pavement, such as stresses, strains, and displacements in the
critical components, can be determined .
 These responses are then used with the failure criteria to predict
whether failures will occur.
 Evaluation of Subgrade Soil Properties is also an important input
parameter.

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 General Properties
 When pavements are considered as linear elastic, the elastic
moduli and Poisson ratios of the subgrade and each component
layer must be specified.
 If the elastic modulus of a material varies with the time of
loading, the resilient modulus, which is the elastic modulus
under repeated loads, must be selected in accordance with a
load duration corresponding to the vehicle speed.
 When a material is considered nonlinear elastic, the constitutive
equation relating the resilient modulus to the state of stresses
must be provided .

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Resilient Modulus
d
MR 
r

Where,
MR = Resilient modulus,
σd = Deviator stress and
εr = Recoverable strain

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 Poisson’s Ratio
 Effect of Poisson’s ratio on pavement responses is less
 A value of 0.3 to o.5 may be taken for the flexible pavement
materials
 For concrete, a value of 0.15 and for cement stabilized layers, a
value of 0.25 may be adopted for analysis

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Strength and stiffness tests‐ Soil
 Shear Tests
 Direct Shear Test
 Triaxial Shear Test
 Unconfined Compressive Strength Test
 Vane Shear Test
 CBR test (lab and field)
 Dynamic Cone Penetrometer
 Plate Bearing Test – Modulus Of Reaction (k)
 Elastic Modulus and Resilient Modulus Of Soils

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Shear Tests
 Shear strength, S, due to friction is defined as S = σ′ tan φ′, where σ′ is
the effective normal stress.
 The frictional strength is dictated by many factors, including density,
mineralogy, shape of the soil participles, gradation, void ratio, and the
presence or absence of organic materials.
 The other component of soil shear resistance, cohesion (C), present in
some soils (cohesive), is defined as the strength that exists in the soil
even if the effective stress (σ′) appears to be zero.
 C is a result of different factors such as cementation, electrostatic
attraction, adhesion, and negative pore water pressures and is
significantly affected by factors such as density, moisture, and drainage
conditions.
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Shear Tests
 The combined shear resistance of the soil can be expressed as:

 For evaluation of shear strength of soils, tests are conducted at

different normal stress levels, and the failure shear stress
corresponding to each normal stress level is determined.
 A series of such data points are connected to obtain the Mohr–
Coulomb failure envelope and determine the cohesion and
frictional components of the shear strength equation.

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Direct Shear Test

48
Unconfined Compression Test
 The unconfined compression test uses an unconfined cylindrical soil
sample on which normal stress is applied and the failure stress is
noted.
 The shear strength is obtained from the unconfined compression
strength.
 It is a simple, inexpensive, and quick test but lacks the ability to
apply confining stress, which is usually present in the field, and
hence underestimates the shear strength (since confinement
increases the shear strength).

49
Unconfined Compression Test

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Unconfined Compression Test

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Triaxial Shear Test
 The triaxial compression test is the most sophisticated of the three
tests; in it, a soil sample is subjected to confining stress (by
pressurized water) and loaded to failure.
 This test enables the determination of pore water pressure, if any,
and hence the calculation of the effective stress (effective stress =
total stress − pore water pressure).
 Depending on the soil and the specific project, triaxial testing can
be conducted under unconsolidated undrained, consolidated
drained, or consolidated undrained conditions.

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Triaxial Shear Test

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Triaxial Shear Test
 It is assumed that the volume of the sample remains constant and
that the area of the sample increases uniformly as the length
decreases.
 The calculation of the stress is based on this new area at failure, by
direct calculation, using the proving ring constant and the new area
of the sample.
 The strain and corresponding stress is plotted with stress abscissa
and curve is drawn. The maximum compressive stress at failure and
the corresponding strain and cell pressure are found out.

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Triaxial Shear Test
 The stress results of the series of triaxial tests at increasing cell
pressure are plotted on a Mohr stress diagram. In this diagram a
semicircle is plotted with normal stress as abscissa shear stress as
ordinate.
 The condition of the failure of the sample is generally approximated
to by a straight line drawn as a tangent to the circles, the equation
of which is τ = c + σ tanφ.
 The value of cohesion, c is read of the shear stress axis, where it is
cut by the tangent to the mohr circles, and the angle of shearing
resistance (φ) is angle between the tangent and a line parallel to
the shear stress.

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Triaxial Shear Test

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 CBR Tests‐Lab
 The test determines the soil’s bearing capacity from laboratory‐
compacted specimen, expressed as CBR.
 CBR is defined as the ratio of the load required to cause a certain
penetration of the plunger into the soil material to the load required
to obtain the same penetration on a specimen of standard material.
 The CBR laboratory test can be carried out by ASTM D 1883 (2007),
AASHTO T 193 (2013) or IS 2720 (part 16)

57
 CBR Tests‐Lab
 The soil material, after being pulverised so as no aggregations
(lumps) exist, passed through a 19.0 mm sieve.
 In case there are remaining aggregates on the 19.0 mm sieve, an
equivalent mass is replaced from the same soil material passing
through the 19.0 mm sieve but was retained on the 4.75 mm sieve.
 This replacement is necessary for the validity of the result when
coarse soil material is tested

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CBR Test

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CBR Tests‐In‐situ
 CBR value of compacted soils can also be measured ‘in situ’.
 The apparatus used is similar to the one used in the laboratory,
with the only difference being the manual application of load.
 This requires the use of a means for providing reaction/ resistance
so that the load is applied on the surface.
 Rest of the procedures (i.e. test execution and eliciting results) are
exactly the same as the procedure executed in the laboratory.

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CBR Tests‐In‐situ

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Field CBR using Dynamic Cone Penetrometer
 Dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP) is used to measure quickly the
in situ bearing capacity or strength of the subgrade material as
well as the weakly bound material.
 The strength is expressed in penetration rate or index and may be
related to in situ CBR value.
 One advantage of the DCP is that coarser and stronger material
can be tested (with CBR values up to 100%).
 Additionally, the layer’s thickness and its strength can be
identified down to a depth of, normally, 1 m or more.

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Dynamic Cone Penetrometer
 The device has a very basic Handle

construction and can be easily Hammer

used.
 It uses a standard 8 kg rammer 575 mm
Upper Shaft

dropping through a height of Anvil

575 mm and a steel drive rod Lower Shaft

with a replaceable point or Graduated 

Scale

disposable 60° cone tip CONE

60o cone angle

Base Plate
20 mm

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DCP‐CBR Relationships
According to ASTM D 6951 (2009)
 For all soils, except for CL with
CBR<10 and CH soils:
CBR = 292/DCP1.12
 For CL soils with CBR<10:
CBR = 1/ (0.07019 x DCP)2
 For CH soils:
CBR = 1/ (0.002871 x DCP)
Where DCP is in mm/blow

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Correlations between CBR and index properties
 For coarse, clean material, typically non-plastic material such as GW,
GP, SW and SP, for which PI = 0:
CBR = 28.09 (D60)0.358
 For soils containing more than 12% fines and exhibiting some
plasticity, such as GM, GC, SM, SC, ML, MH, CL and CH, for which
wPI other than 0:
CBR = 75/ [1+0.728 x wPI]
Where CBR is the California bearing ratio (%), D60 is the diameter at 60%
passing from particle size distribution (mm) and wPI is the weighted
plasticity index (= P200 × PI), where P200 is percentage passing through sieve
No. 200, used as a decimal, and PI is the plasticity index.

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Plate Bearing Test
 The plate bearing test is used for the determination of soil
bearing capacity with respect to the modulus of surface reaction
(k value).
 The subgrade bearing capacity in terms of k value is used, mainly,
in rigid pavement design methodologies.
 IRC specifies that the K value be measured at 1.25 mm
settlement.

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 Modulus of subgrade reaction (k)

The reactive pressure to resist a

load is thus proportional to the
spring deflection (which is a
representation of slab deflection)
and k.

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PLATE BEARING TEST

68
Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
 The value of k is in terms of MPa/m and ranges from about 13.5
MPa/m for weak support, to over 270 MPa/m for strong support.
 Typically, the modulus of subgrade reaction is estimated from
other strength/stiffness tests, however, in situ values can be
measured using the plate bearing test.

Source: IRC:58‐2015

69
 Resilient modulus of soil
 The repeated triaxial test applies a repeated axial cyclic stress of fixed
magnitude, load duration and cycle duration to a cylindrical specimen.
 While the specimen is subjected to the dynamic cyclic stress, it is also
subjected to a static confining stress provided by a pressure chamber.
 The cyclic load application better simulates the actual traffic loading.
 The triaxial test under repeated axial loading is performed using a similar
apparatus to the one used for the typical triaxial test in which a static
axial loading is used.

70
 Resilient modulus of soil
 The deviator stress σd (=σ1 − σ2) is repeated, at a fixed magnitude
and frequency. The loading of the soil specimen, under the
influence of deviator stress, results in a deformation, part of which
is recoverable during the stage of unloading.
 This recoverable strain along with the deviator stress determines
the resilient modulus (MR), or the modulus of elasticity (E), of the
material tested, using the equation
MR(or E) = σd/εr
where εr is the recoverable strain.

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 Resilient modulus of soil
 Specimen Dimensions:
 Diameter: 102 mm
 Height: 203 mm

 Sample conditioning:
 First the sample is conditioned by applying various combinations of confining
pressures and deviator stresses.
 After sample conditioning “constant confining pressure – increasing deviator
stress” sequence is applied.

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Resilient modulus of soil
 Loading pattern
 Haversine loading (0.1 sec loading and 0.9 sec rest period)

 k‐σd Model (Cohesive Soils) M R  k d n

where, ‘k’ and ‘n’ are experimentally determined material constants.
 k‐θ model (Granular Soils) M R  k1 k 2

Where, θ, the first stress invariant is the sum of the principal stresses
and k1, k2 are material constants.

73
Resilient modulus of soil
Loading Sequence

74
Resilient modulus of soils

σd is the deviator stress
Ɛr is the recoverable or elastic strain
Resilient modulus of soil

Repeated Load Triaxial Test
Resilient modulus of Granular Materials

Ranges of Kl and K2 for Untreated Granular Materials

77
Correlation between resilient modulus and CBR
 The determination of the material’s stiffness requires the use of more
expensive and complex apparatuses than the CBR apparatus. On the other
hand, there is great experience and a large amount of data collected from CBR
measurements.
 The above two factors advocate that the existence of a correlation between
CBR and stiffness would be very useful to the engineers.

…Powel et al. (1984)

… Asphalt Institute

where E is the stiffness modulus (or surface stiffness modulus) (MPa), MR is the 
resilient modulus (AASHTO T 307 2007) (MPa), CBR is the California bearing ratio
78
Viscoelastic Property of Bitumen
 A viscoelastic material possesses both the elastic property of a
solid and the viscous behaviour of a liquid .
 There are two general methods for characterizing viscoelastic
materials : one by a mechanical model, the other by a creep‐
compliance curve.
 Because Poisson ratio v has a relatively small effect on pavement
behaviour, it is assumed to be elastic independent of time .
 Therefore, only modulus E is considered to be viscoelastic and
time dependent .

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Viscoelastic Property

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Viscoelastic Property of Bitumen
Complex Shear modulus G*
Phase Angle δ

Storage modulus, G’ = G* Cos δ
Loss modulus, G” = G* Sin δ

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Flexible Pavement‐specific properties
 If the design is based on fatigue cracking, the fatigue properties of
asphalt mixtures, must be specified .
 If the design is based on rut depth by summing the permanent
deformations over all layers, the permanent deformation
parameters of each layer must be specified.
 If other distresses, such as low‐temperature cracking, are used as
a basis for design, appropriate properties, such as the asphalt
stiffness at the winter design temperature, should be specified .

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Rigid Pavement‐Specific Properties
 For rigid pavements on liquid foundations, the modulus of
subgrade reaction must be specified.
 To consider the effect of temperature curling, the coefficient of
thermal expansion of the concrete must be specified.
 The most common distress in rigid pavements is fatigue cracking,
so the modulus of rupture and the fatigue properties of concrete
must be specified .
 If other distresses, such as faulting caused by excessive bearing
stress on dowel bars, are used as a basis for design, appropriate
properties, such as the diameter and spacing of dowels, must be
specified .
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Failure Criteria
 In the mechanistic–empirical methods of pavement design, a
number of failure criteria, each directed to a specific type of
distress, must be established.
 It is generally agreed that fatigue cracking, rutting, and low
temperature cracking are the three principal types of distress to be
considered for flexible pavement design.
 Fatigue cracking has long been considered the major or only
criterion for rigid pavement design. The allowable number of load
repetitions to cause fatigue cracking depends on the stress ratio
between flexural tensile stress and the concrete modulus of
rupture .
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 Performance Data
 Obtained by
 Long term monitoring of in‐service pavements
 Accelerated testing of pavements
 Laboratory testing of model pavements or pavement materials

85
 Failure Criteria ‐Flexible Pavement
 Rutting
 Fatigue Cracking
 Thermal Cracking
 Top Down Cracking

86
Failure Criteria ‐Flexible Pavement
Fatigue Cracking Criterion

IRC‐37

ɛt

Rutting Criterion z

IRC‐37
N  4.1656  10 08 (1 /  z ) 4.5337

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Failure Criteria ‐Rigid Pavement
 Fatigue cracking has long been considered the major or only criterion for rigid
pavement design .
 Other criteria under consideration include faulting and joint deterioration of
JPCP and JRCP and edge punchout of CRCP.
Cumulative Fatigue 
Damage Theory

Miner’s Hypothesis

N = Fatigue Life of the Concrete Pavement
Stress Ratio = Applied Stress/ Flexural Strength

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Reliability
 In view of the fact that the predicted distress at the end of a design
period varies a great deal, depending on the variability of predicted
traffic and the quality control on materials and construction, it is
more reasonable to use a probabilistic approach based on the
reliability concept.
 Design reliability: Probability that each of key distress types &
smoothness will be less than selected critical level over design
period.
R = P [ Distress over Design Period < Critical Distress Level ]
Pavement Management
 Understand the pavement life‐cycle
Life Cycle Cost Analysis
 Life‐cycle cost analysis is a process for evaluating the total
economic worth of a usable project segment by analyzing initial
costs and discounted future cost, such as maintenance, user,
reconstruction, rehabilitation, restoring, and resurfacing costs,
over the life of the project.
 A usable project segment is defined as a portion of a highway
that, when completed, could be opened to traffic independent
of some larger overall project (FHWA, 1998).
 In simple terms, LCCA is an analysis technique that supports
more informed and better investment decisions.

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Life Cycle Cost Analysis
 It builds on well‐founded principles of economic analysis that
have been used to evaluate highway and other public works
investment for years .
 It incorporates discounted long‐term agency, user, and other
relevant costs over the life of a highway to identify the best value
for investment expenditures (i.e., the lowest long‐term cost that
satisfies the performance objective sought) .
 LCCA can be applied to a wide variety of investment‐related
decision levels to evaluate the economic worth of various
designs, projects, alternatives, or system strategies to get the
best return on the funds .

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Net Present Value (NPV )
 NPV is the discounted monetary value of expected net benefits
(i.e., benefits minus costs). The basic formula for computing NPV
is : NPV = PVbenefits — Pvcosts
 Because the benefits of keeping the roadway above some pre‐
established terminal level are the same for all design
alternatives, the benefits component drops out and the formula
reduces to:

Where, N = number of rehabilitations, i = discount rate, and n

= year of expenditure

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Life Cycle Cost Analysis‐ Pavement Design
 Pavement design is a project‐level activity where detailed
engineering and economic considerations are given to alternate
combinations of sub‐base, base, and surface materials which will
provide adequate load‐carrying capacity.
 Factors that are considered include: materials, traffic, climate,
maintenances, drainage, and life‐cycle costs.

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Alternative Strategies
 The primary purpose of the LCCA is to quantify both the long‐
term as well as the short‐term implication of various alternative
strategies.
 A pavement design strategy is the combination of initial
pavement design and necessary supporting maintenance and
rehabilitation activities.
 Analysis period is the time horizon over which life‐cycle costs are
evaluated.
 The first step in conducting an LCCA of alternative pavement
design is to identify the alternative pavement design strategies
for the analysis period under consideration.

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Alternative Strategies
 Generally, the LCCA analysis period should be sufficiently long to
reflect longterm consequences of various alternatives and
strategies .
 This means that the analysis period should always be longer than
the pavement design period, except in the case of extremely
long‐lived pavement.
 As a rule of thumb, the analysis period should be long enough to
incorporate at least one rehabilitation activity.
 The FHWA (1995) recommends an analysis period of at least 35
years for all pavement projects.

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Alternative Strategies
 Regardless of the analysis period selected, the analysis period
used should be the same for all alternatives.
 Typically, each design alternative will have an expected initial
design life, periodic maintenance treatment, and, possibly, a
series of rehabilitation activities.
 It is important to identify the scope, timing, and cost of these
activities.

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Life Cycle Cost Analysis
 An economic evaluation shall be made on all possible options and
an optimized design at the lowest overall cost will be selected.
 Poor design practice will result in higher pavement maintenance
and rehabilitation costs throughout the years and has by far the
greatest effect on life cycle costs .
Summary
 Various factor affecting the pavement design should be critically
analysed before the pavement design.
 Tyre‐pavement interaction should be studied, as traffic is an
important factor in pavement design.
 Failure criteria is the backbone of pavement design. Should be
selected carefully.
 Life‐cycle cost analysis is also an important consideration
sustainable pavement design.
 Pavement management should be considered in the pavement
design along with all basic factors.

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 Thank you

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