EVALUATION OF STRENGTH AND PERFORMANCE OF SUBGRADE STABILIZED USING RAP AND ITS ANALYSIS USING IITPAVE: A CASE STUDY OF MUNROE ISLAND

Abstract

Pavements are one of the most significant parts of any highway system. To design any pavement structure, the subgrade soil plays a crucial role as it has to provide sufficient support to the pavement. It has to have proper stability under harsh traffic and climatic conditions. Soils generally found in distinguished sites are strong enough to bear the designed load of the structure that has to be built upon them or there may be a requirement to modify it. Clays as subgrades pose serious problems to flexible pavements built over them as they retain moisture for a longer period and possess low strength. As pavement structures are exposed to forces of nature and fatigue loads, their durability and stability are of key importance. Excessive settlements along the wheel tracks on pavement surface and bearing capacity failures in the subgrade soil are often observed in the flexible pavements constructed over such subgrades. Soil stabilization is an important aspect to improve the strength of soils and bring it up to certain standards as per the engineering requirements. The present study is carried to evaluate the strength and performance of pavement constructed on low-bearing capacity soil mixed with recycled asphalt pavement aggregates subjected to the traffic load. The analysis is being carried out using IITPAVE software where actual strain and deflection are obtained, which is based on the M-E design approach.