EFFECT OF MOISTURE CONTENT ON DEFORMATION CHARACTERISTICS OF UNBOUND BASE COURSES

.A.El-Hamrawy, S; E. El-Hoseiny, K.; Abou-Elmaaty, A.

doi:10.21608/erjm.2004.82613

EFFECT OF MOISTURE CONTENT ON DEFORMATION CHARACTERISTICS OF UNBOUND BASE COURSES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Faculty of Engineering, Minoufiya University, Shebin El-Kom, Egypt

10.21608/erjm.2004.82613

Abstract

he design of flexible pavements involves a study of the behavior of soils and paving materials
under traffic and environmental conditions. The pavement may be exposed to different moisture
contents. This variation in moisture content influences the flexible pavement performance causing
plastic deformation or rutting.
The results of an experimental program utilizing a test-model for determination of the plastic and
elastic deformation along the model centerline are presented for pavement unbound granular base
materials. A limestone base course, which usually used in north Egypt was manually compacted
and tested by plate loading test at four moisture contents. The four selected moisture contents are
(optimum moisture content (OMC, OMC -2%, OMC+1.5% and OMC+3%). Moreover, the finite
element program, FENLAP was selected to predict the base course deformation at different
moisture contents.
It was found that the effect of moisture content was very significant on the modulus of elasticity
and the deformation that accumulated in granular base materials. The highest modulus of elasticity
and the lowest deformation were occurred at OMC.

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