The experimental pavement structure is presented in Fig. 11.11. It had a length of 28 m, a width of 6 m and consisted of:
• a bituminous concrete wearing course, with an average thickness of 85 mm;
• a granular base (0/20 mm crushed gneiss) with an average thickness of 430 mm;
• a subgrade soil consisting of 2.5 m of mica-schist with a low modulus (around 30 MPa).
Asphalt concrete (85 mm)
Fig. 11.11 Structure of the LCPC experimental pavement
The instrumentation installed in this experimental structure included:
• strain gauges to measure longitudinal and transversal strains at the bottom of the asphalt layer;
• displacement transducers to measure vertical strains in the top 100 mm of the granular layer and of the subgrade;
• vertical pressure transducers at the top of the subgrade;
• thermocouples in the asphalt layer; and
• tensiometers, to measure suction in the granular base and in the subgrade.
The pavement was subjected to dual wheel loads. Different load levels (45, 65 and 75kN), and different loading speeds (3.4-68km/h) were applied during the experiment.
