In-Situ Behavior of Geosynthetically Stabilized Flexible Pavements

Abstract

The purpose of a geotextile separator beneath a granular base, or subbase in a flexible pavement system is to prevent the road aggregate and the underlying subgrade from intermixing. It has been hypothesized that in the absence of a geotextile, intermixing between base course aggregate and soft subgrade occurs. Nine heavily instrumented flexible pavement test sections were built in Bedford County Virginia to investigate the benefits of geosynthetic stabilization in flexible pavements. Three groups of different base course thicknesses (100, 150 and 200mm) test sections were constructed with either geotextile or geogrid stabilization or no stabilization.the selection of design parameters for geo synthetics has been complicated by the difficulty in associating their relevant properties to the improved pavement performance. Nonetheless, significant research has been conducted with the objectives of: (i) determining the governing mechanisms and relevant properties of geo synthetics that contribute to the enhanced performance of pavement systems, (ii) developing appropriate analytical, laboratory and field methods capable of quantifying the above properties for geo synthetics, and (iii) enabling the prediction of pavement performance depending on the various types of geo synthetics used.