Today roads are durable surface made out of asphalt and concrete, and not of gravel or granite as it was done in the past. But there are many paving methods, designs and types of road profilers. One common design of pavement is the M-E. It is a layered pavement, consisted of 3-4 horizontal layers made of sub-grade base or sub-base. Each pavement layer is flexible and thick, which means low temperatures can cause the failure of the pavement structure. The process of this pavement design also involves adjusting and selecting appropriate thickness of layers. But this does not mean other road pavement methods are ideal. Here are the latest trends in road pavement.
Economical Pavement Design
Due to many years of experience and practice, it was discovered that the fatigue life of a bituminous layer can be increased by increasing the amount of bitumen. But an increase in the amount of bitumen can result in less air voids, which are crucial for a given aggregate gradation. Softer amount of bitumen can provide a higher fatigue, but the stiffness of the pavement is reduced. But the objective of a designer should be achieving both high stiffness and high resistance life for the most cost-effective and economical design of pavement. If all these factors are considered, the result would be a very economical design of pavement.
Damages Of Pavement Design
Indeed, pavements are strong surfaces, but they are not able to handle severe stress conditions. Most of the time, the designing process of a pavement fails when it comes to the thickness. Potential stress conditions or damages are not considered and so the structural state of the pavement cannot be predicted. If the designer considers the damage process, he/she will be able to design a strong pavement with great confidence. But, it is a very complicated process because of the inherent complications associated in modeling the material response. Plus, many other damages can occur.
Pavement Design With Recycled Materials
The aggregates that cannot be used for road construction in such state can be used recycled by road profilers. The road profilers mix the existing pavement on-place with spread lime or cement. So, a road profiler blends soil, water and a binder in its chamber and provides a great pavement design. Recycled materials produced by a road profiler can extend the fatigue life of the pavement. In recycling process of a road profiler, aside from the recycled pavement material, bitumen and fresh aggregates are also added.
