Military Institute of Science &
Technology
Assignment
CE-451
Pavement Design and Traffic
Management
Subject: Comparative Study of Performance of Rigid and
Flexible Pavement in Bangladesh
Name:Nafizul Islam Nafiz
Student No: 201711020
Dept: CE-19
Sec: A
Level: 04
Term: 01
Comparative Study of Performance of
Rigid and Flexible Pavement in
Bangladesh
Introduction
Pavement is the actual travel surface especially made durable and serviceable to
withstand the traffic load commuting upon it. Pavement grants friction for the
vehicles thus providing comfort to the driver and transfers the traffic load from the
upper surface to the natural soil. In earlier times before the vehicular traffic became
most regular, cobblestone paths were much familiar for animal carts and on foot
traffic load. Pavements are primarily to be used by vehicles and pedestrians. Storm
water drainage and environmental conditions are a major concern in the designing
of a pavement. The first of the constructed roads date back to 4000 BC and
consisted of stone paved streets or timber roads.
A highway pavement is a structure consisting of superimposed layers of processed
materials above the natural soil sub-grade, whose primary function is to distribute
the applied vehicle loads to the sub-grade. The pavement structure should be able
to provide a surface of acceptable riding quality, adequate skid resistance,
favorable light reflecting characteristics, and low noise pollution. The ultimate aim
is to ensure that the transmitted stresses due to wheel load are sufficiently reduced,
so that they will not exceed bearing capacity of the sub grade.
Two types of pavements are generally recognized as serving this purpose. They are
1. Flexible pavements
2. Rigid pavements
Flexible pavement:
Flexible pavements are those which are surfaced with bituminous (or asphalt)
materials. These may be either surface treatment like BST for low volume road or
Hot mixed Asphalt (HMA) for higher volume road. A flexible pavement is
structure that maintains intimate contact with and distribute load to the sub grade
and depends on aggregate interlock, particle friction and cohesion for stability.
Rigid pavement:
A rigid pavement is composed of hydraulic cement concrete surface course. The
surface course (concrete slab) is stiffest and provide majority of the strength. They
are substantially stiffer than flexible pavement. The rigid characteristic of the
pavement are associated with rigidity or flexural strength or slab action so the load
is distributed over a wide area of subgrade soil.
Comparative analysis between flexible and rigid pavements considering mainly
cost, material availability, pavement performance. In present context of
Bangladesh most of the roads are of flexible pavement, rigid pavement is not so
popular here because of its high initial cost. But in the long run we can see that
government has to spend a lot of money every year for maintenance work of
flexible pavement all over the country. But considering safety, economy,
serviceability and comfort, concrete or rigid pavement construction can be a
reasonable option. May be its time to step aside the old concept and welcome the
newest one. Comparative study of performance of rigid and flexible pavements is
discussed below.
1. Bending
A flexible pavement will flex under the load of a tyre. The objective with the
design of a flexible pavement is to avoid the excessive flexing of any layer, failure
to achieve this will result in the over stressing of a layer, which ultimately will
cause the pavement to fail. Conversely, rigid pavements are considered to be rigid,
implying that the pavement will not flex. This is not entirely accurate, since even a
rigid pavement will flex, the amount is however so small that when compared with
a flexible pavement, it is considered rigid.
2. Normal Loading
Elastic deformation is experienced under normal loading in flexible pavement.
Conversely, rigid pavement acts as a beam or cantilever. The increased rigidity of
concrete allows the concrete surface layer to bridge small weak areas in the
supporting layer through beam action. This allows the placement of rigid
pavements on relatively weak supporting layers, as long as the supporting layer
material particles will not be carried away by water forced up by the pumping
action of wheel loads.
3. Excessive Loading
Local depression occurs in flexible pavement. On the contrary, excessive loading
causes cracks in rigid pavement.
4. Flexural Strength
Flexible pavements have low or negligible flexural strength. Rigid pavements are
associated with rigidity or flexural strength or slab action so the load is distributes
over a wide area of subgrade soil.
5. Stress
Flexible pavement transmits vertical and compressive stress to the lower layers.
Each layer carries a fraction of total load, distribute it gradually due to aggregate
interlocking over a wider area than previous layer, finally over a wide area of
roadbed and thus protects the roadbed being overstressed.
In rigid pavement, tensile stress develops as a major portion of the load is carried
by the slab itself.
6. Temparature
No stress is developed due to temperature in flexible pavement. On the contrary,
stress is produced due to temperature in rigid pavement.
7. Force of friction
Flexible pavement has less force of friction. Deformation in the subgrade is not
transferred to the upper layes. But in rigid pavement friction force is very high.
8. Distresses due to Submergence and Hot Climate Condition
In Bangladesh due to poor quality of construction coupled with heavy rainfall and
submerged conditions, flexible pavements deteriorates prematurely and thereby
requires maintenance work more frequently. But proper maintenance work cannot
be done until the road has become completely dried. This unwanted delayed
maintenance work results enormous sufferings to the road users. On the other
hand, cement concrete can withstand high temperatures without any softening
simultaneous effects of high temperatures and rainfall/flood do not deteriorate the
cement concrete pavement much. This property is likely to be of great value in
tropical countries like Bangladesh.
9. Glaring effect
Glaring means shining with or reflecting a harshly bright or brilliant light. Flexible
pavement don’t usually cause glare due to reflected sunlight. Conversely, rigid
pavement cause glare due to reflected sunlight.
10.Night Visibility
Flexible pavement`s black top provides poor night visibility due to use of bitumen.
On the otherhand,rigid pavement provides good night visibility. Because concrete
is naturally brighter and more reflective than asphalt. This requires less energy to
illuminate comparable areas, which is good for the environment.To overcome the
lack of light reflectance, an asphalt pavement requires either,More street lights per
km than a concrete pavement or Higher watt light bulbs at the same light pole
spacing as a used on a concrete pavement.\
11.Life Cycle Cost
The initial cost of rigid pavement is comparatively higher than flexible pavement.
But with longer design period the cost of concrete pavement becomes cheaper.
12.Behaviour with the subgrade settlement
Flexible pavement adjust according to any deformation of subgrade without
rupture. However, rigid pavement don’t adjust according to any deformation of
subgrade without rupture.
13.Penetration of water
A cement concrete slab is practically impervious, except at joints. If joints are
sealed and well maintained, water will not penetrate and soften the sub grade. A
bituminous surface is not impervious. Water can find its way into the lower layers
through cracks and pores. Such water can impair the stability of the pavement. As
Bangladesh is a country of rains. Rigid pavement would be more suitable.
14.Resilience
The performance of pavement structures can be significantly affected by
environmental factors. Therefore, evaluating the resilience of pavements during
extreme events and natural disasters is of major interest to highway agencies and
coastal stakeholders. Flexible pavement has more resilient to traffic load than rigid
pavement.
15.Tractive Resistance
The resistance to motion due to friction per unit weight hauled is called tractive
resistance. Flexible pavement offer more tractive resistance than rigid pavement.
16.Corrugation
The formation of ripples or waves on the flexible pavement generally
perpendicular to the traffic flow is called corrugation. The distortion is
perpendicular to the traffic direction. Usually occurs at points where traffic starts
and stops or areas where HMA abuts a rigid object. Development of corrugations
occurs in flexible pavement but rigid pavement has no such phenomenon.
17.Durability
Durability is the ability of a physical product to remain functional, without
requiring excessive maintenance or repair, when faced with the challenges of
normal operation over its design lifetime. Flexible pavements are more durable. In
contrast, rigid pavements are more durable due to higher flexural strength.
18.Impact of Oil and Greece
Conventional asphalt pavement has several drawbacks. It is vulnerable to rutting
caused by traffic load and damage caused by petroleum oils such as gasoline or
motor oil. On the contrary, less damage is done by oil and lubricant in rigid
pavement.
19.Noise Emission
The noise emission of traffic is represented by a source line characterised by its
directional sound power per meter per frequency. Flexible pavement has low noise
emission. But rigid pavement has higher noise emission due to friction between
concrete and tire is higher than asphalt roads.
20.Skid Resistance
Skid resistance is the force developed when a tire that is prevented from rotating
slides along the pavement surface. Skid resistance is an important pavement
evaluation parameter because: Inadequate skid resistance will lead to higher
incidences of skid related accidents. Rigid pavement has high skid resistance on
the other hand, flexible pavement has low skid resistance.
21.Fuel saving
Concrete Pavement provides fuel saving for heavy vehicles because heavy vehicles
cause a greater deflection on flexible pavement than on rigid pavements. This
increased deflection of the pavement absorbs part of the vehicle energy that would
otherwise be available to propel the vehicle, thus, the hypothesis can be made that
more energy and therefore more fuel, is required to drive on flexible pavements.
Concrete’s rigid design reduces road deflection and corresponding fuel
consumption performance of heavy vehicles operating on concrete and asphalt
pavements shows that the savings in fuel consumption for heavy vehicles travelling
on concrete versus asphalt pavements was up to 20%.
Concluding Remarks
The preceding articles present a brief but reasonably comprehensive view of
bituminous pavement construction. It has intended to present problems of using
flexible (bituminous) pavement in our country considering initial and yearly
maintenance cost and high foreign currency involvement in procuring bitumen.
Major highways constructed in the world are of bituminous surfacing. For
example, 86 percent of rural highways and 78 percent of urban roads are of flexible
type. Most of the runways in the world have flexible pavements. However, the
choice of type of a pavement is governed by the type of traffic and soil conditions.
In case of areas where soil subgrade is weak (like clay) and drainage conditions are
also difficult to maintain at desired level of performance rigid pavement can be a
good choice. But when soil subgrade is of good quality and traffic is also not very
heavy, flexible pavements can be more economical. The biggest advantage with
flexible pavement is that they can be made in stages. The economic analysis done
by an expert committee found that flexible pavement will be much cheaper than
rigid pavement.
