Engineering properties of resin modified pavement (RMP) for mechanistic design

Abstract : The research study described in this report focuses on determining the engineering properties of the resin modified pavement (RMP) material relating to pavement performance and then developing a rational mechanistic design procedure to replace the current empirical design procedure. A detailed description of RMP is provided, including a review of the available literature on this relatively new pavement technology. Field evaluations of four existing and two new RMP project sites were made to assess critical failure modes and to obtain pavement samples for subsequent laboratory testing. Various engineering properties of laboratory-produced and field-recovered samples of RMP were measured and analyzed. The engineering properties evaluated included those relating to the material's stiffness, strength, thermal properties, and traffic-related properties. Comparisons of these data to typical values for asphalt concrete and Portland cement concrete were made to relate the physical nature of RMP to more common pavement surfacing materials. A mechanistic design procedure was developed to determine appropriate thickness profiles of RMP, using stiffness and fatigue properties determined by this study. The design procedure is based on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers layered elastic method for airfield flexible pavements. The WESPAVE computer program was used to demonstrate the new design procedure for a hypothetical airfield apron design.