Análisis de alternativas en el diseño de pavimentos flexibles y rígidos por el método AASHTO 93

Abstract

Roads are fundamental for the development of towns and cities, for this reason, it is of great importance to have suitably designed roads to support vehicular loads in order that users feel comfortable and safe, however, implement pavement structures with layer thicknesses without performing an adequate analysis, it can generate a high construction cost in any road project.

In the present investigation, software has been developed in Matlab that allows to validate different alternatives of flexible and rigid pavement designs with the purpose of carrying out a technical and economic comparative analysis of the total costs of each design; the alternatives are designed based on the method created by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO 93). Several combinations were made depending on the variation of the thicknesses and materials of each layer for different design periods (15, 20 and 40 years); in the different layers, materials with mechanical properties specified in the Ecuadorian highway regulations of the MTOP have been selected.

Using the computational tool, it was determined that the lowest cost flexible pavements are those that have treads with minimum thickness according to the number of equivalent axes, economic design period of 40 years, materials with good drainage quality and improved subgrade. For the rigid pavements the best results were obtained by establishing granular base thicknesses of 6.0 to 9.0 inches and with economic design period of 15 years.