Behavior of RCC-base composite pavement for heavy duty area

In heavy duty area, asphalt pavement constructed as entrance roadway may expose the distresses such as cracking and rutting during service life. To mitigate these problems, composite pavement with roller-compacted concrete base may be a good alternative and it should be initially investigated. Structural performances such as fatigue cracking and rut depth may be changed due to variation of some design factors. Therefore, this study focuses on the variation effect of material modulus, layer thickness and loading on composite pavement performances. Stress and strain at the critical location are determined and used as the input of transfer function for corresponding distresses to evaluate the pavement performance. Also, composite pavement achieving the design criteria may be selected as a design section for heavy duty area. Consequently, this investigation indicates that composite pavement has ability to eliminate fatigue cracking in asphalt surface and significantly reduce rut depth. In addition, thick or strong rigid base can excessively reduce rut depth and prolong fatigue life of this layer.