Briefing: Study of the relationship between stiffness parameters for base materials

Abstract

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The stiffness of the base layer is an important parameter for designing the pavement thickness needed to support traffic loads. It is normally related to the California bearing ratio (CBR). The spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW) method is introduced here as an in situ non-destructive seismic technique to obtain the CBR and dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP) values. They are found from measurement of wave velocity and correlation with the dynamic properties of the pavement system. In this study, the relationship between the shear wave velocity and dynamic stiffness of the SASW was found to correlate well with the DCP and CBR values. The empirical correlation of CBR to dynamic stiffness in terms of elastic modulus was found to be similar to a previously suggested correlation. Preliminary analysis also indicates that the empirical model could be used to predict the modulus of pavement base layer.