On the structural analysis of highway pavements : an application of variational methods

Because of the high financial cost involved in highway construction, it is essential that the most economic methods of design and construction are employed in roadworks. From the design aspect, a road must perform its required function for a specified number of years and the extent to which a pavement fulfils this requirement is largely dependent upon the structural method of design employed. Such a method should be economical, completely reliable, and easily applicable. The main difficulty which arises is that there are a great many parameters involved in any pavement design procedure. These vary from those created by pavement frost effects to those resulting from vehicle wheel configurations. The magnitudes and effects of several of these variables are also difficult to determine quantitatively. In the light of present knowledge it is generally accepted that the ultimate pavement design method will be principally empirical in nature. However, the use of a structural analysis of the pavement as a basis of such an empirical approach is advisable. The analysis should be used to determine the critical stresses, strains and deflections occurring in a pavement and should cover as many as possible of the determinate parameters. This theoretical analysis might then also provide a tool with which the effect of these parameters could be investigated.