Effects of side slope on low-volume road pavement performance: a full-scale assessment

The study concerns the full-scale testing of some low-volume road pavements using the heavy vehicle simulator (HVS) Nordic. The road structures were built with different angle side slopes and then trafficked to determine their performance. Performance was assessed in terms of rutting development and in terms of a geotechnical wedge stability method. A geometric factor has been introduced to describe the effect of side slope on the rate of rutting development. The geometric factor describes an average, structurally independent increase in the rate of rutting, which depends on the steepness of slope and on the distance to the edge of the construction but not on the load. To achieve the analysis, a finite element model of the road structures was established using appropriate resilient moduli values. These values were obtained after a comparison of values obtained from in situ measurements, back-calculated from in situ loading tests and laboratory tests, which differed appreciably.