116
Design of Pavement Structures:
The French Technical Guide
JEAN-FRANÇOIS CORTÉ AND MARIE-THÉRESE GOUX
Until recently in France the design of pavement structures was specified
in catalogs of standard structures in which course thicknesses are fixed
according to the traffic category and subgrade load-bearing capacity.
This type of document is appropriate when the constituent materials of
the pavements and their mechanical performance are predefined and
investment strategies are firmly established. During the past 10 years the
technical and economic context in France has changed considerably.
The standardization of road products and materials has introduced mate-
rial classes characterized by their mechanical performance, and road
management has been transferred from state to local authorities and has
been accompanied by a differentiation in the various owners’ invest-
ment and maintenance strategies. Catalogs of existing pavement struc-
tures have had to be supplemented through an approach that made it pos-
sible to set the parameters for the mechanical properties of materials and
pavement investment strategies. The publication of the French techni-
cal guide for the design of pavement structures serves as such a supple-
ment. This manual makes explicit the mechanistic approach in use for
many years in France. The basic concepts, design criteria, and applica-
tion of this method are described, and examples for asphalt and cement-
concrete pavements are provided.
In 1995 the French road network comprised more than 900,000 km
of surfaced roads:
• 28,250 km of national roads, 1670 km of urban motorways, and
810 km of nonconceded, interurban motorways managed by the
state;
• 6000 km of toll motorways conceded to semipublic or private
companies;
• 354,000 km of county roads owned by the departements
(counties);
• 526,000 km of local roads owned by the communes; and
• 650,000 km, approximately, of forestry roads or farm tracks,
which are often gravel.
The French road system is also characterized by the use of a wide
range of pavement structures:
• Pavements with asphalt-mixture bases account for approxi-
mately 45 percent of the state-managed network and county primary
networks and 70 percent of networks managed by the motorway
companies.
• Pavements with cement- or slag-treated graded aggregate bases
account for approximately 45 percent of the state-managed network
and county primary networks.
• Cement concrete pavements, not widespread in the state and
county networks, account for 20 percent of the motorway network.
J.-F. Corté, Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, BP 19, 44340,
Bouguenais, France. M.-T. Goux, Service d’Etude Technique des Routes et
Autoroutes, BP 100, 92223 Bagneux, France.
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD 1539
• Pavements with unbound graded aggregate bases in the local
authorities’ low-trafficked networks account for the remaining roads
in the French system.
Other types of pavements were developed during the 1980s to
limit the use of asphalt materials because of the high cost of bitumen
at the time, as well as to reduce maintenance work on transverse
reflective cracks with treated bases. This led to the development of
two kinds of pavement, which are used on 5 to 10 percent of heav-
ily trafficked roads:
• Composite pavements, consisting of a cement-treated graded
aggregate subbase surmounted by a base of asphalt material approx-
imately 15 cm thick and a wearing course; and
• Inverse pavements, in which an untreated graded aggregate
course, at least 8 cm thick and designed to prevent reflective
cracks, is laid between the cement-treated subbase and the asphalt
courses.
Until recently the design of the various pavement structures was
defined in catalogs of standard structures drawn up at the state level
(1–3) and by local authorities. These documents determine the
thickness of the layers according to the traffic category and subgrade
load-bearing capacity. This approach is appropriate when the pave-
ment materials are codified—when their mix design and mechani-
cal performances are defined in a unique way, as in the instructions
issued by the Directorate of Roads in the early 1970s.
In the last 10 years important changes in the technical and eco-
nomic context of pavement construction in France have taken place.
The issuance of national standards for road products and materials
has introduced material classes characterized by mechanical perfor-
mance levels, and road management, accompanied by a differentia-
tion in investment and maintenance strategies, has been transferred
from the state to local authorities. The rate of innovation with a
range of new materials has also increased.
Because of the diversification in material performance and invest-
ment strategies, catalogs of pavement structures needed to be sup-
plemented by an explicit pavement design method. This need has
resulted in the publication of the French technical guide for design
of pavement structures (4).
EVOLUTION OF PAVEMENT STRUCTURE
DESIGN IN FRANCE
Before the 1950s virtually all French pavements were flexible struc-
tures that typically were designed on an empirical basis using exist-
ing pavements as examples and, more rarely, by adapting the Cali-
fornia bearing ratio (CBR) method to French conditions.
With the sharp increase in heavy traffic during the 1960s con-
ventional pavements proved inadequate. Thick asphalt pavements
Corté and Goux
were used as a solution, and, in addition, structures made of cement
or slag-treated graded aggregates that required new design meth-
ods were developed. At the same time, the idea of defining pave-
ment materials requirements to limit variations in their mechanical
performances to reasonable levels emerged.
In 1971 the first catalog of standard pavement structures (5) was
issued by the Directorate of Roads. Two criteria were used for
designing these structures: a limit for pressure on the subgrade,
inferred from existing CBR charts, and a limit for strain in the
bound courses, estimated from deflection measurements at the
pavement surface. The use of computers for numerical resolution
of the problem of elastic multilayers allowed a more accurate
analysis and systematic use of the rational mechanics-based
approach for designing pavements, which had already been used in
the late 1950s with charts of three-layer structures.
The Alizé software (6), developed by the Laboratoire Central des
Ponts et Chaussées (LCPC) in 1964, was used for some calcula-
tions to check orders of magnitude of strains in the bound layers for
structures in the 1971 catalog. It was then used systematically to
define the structures in the new catalog (1), published in 1977.
Although the 1977 catalog did not include a description of the
method that had led to the determination of the pavement-layer
thicknesses, information on the approach used was subsequently
published (7,8). In substance, the concepts included in the design
method described in this paper had already been found and inte-
grated into the approach used at that time. The basic changes that
have taken place since then concern the consideration of
• New materials (for example, high-modulus asphalt mixes and
polymer-modified binders);
• New structures (composite, inverse, and continuously rein-
forced concrete), which were included in the update of the Direc-
torate of Roads catalog in 1988 (3);
• Discontinuities, joints, and cracks, using finite-element
models (9); and
• Mechanical contribution of the capping layer.
SPECIFIC FEATURES OF ROADBED IN FRANCE
An important feature in the construction of pavements in France is
the attention paid to the quality of the roadbed. This quality is
achieved by laying a capping layer that adapts the random, dispersed
characteristics of embankment materials or the natural ground.
The technical guide, Construction of Embankments and Capping
Layers, (10), defines the thickness of the capping layer, based on
the type of constituent material and the load-bearing capacity of the
roadbed soil, necessary for the job-site stage; and the long-term
bearing capacity of the pavement support, which determines the
resilient modulus to be used for the pavement design. The ten-
dency, whenever possible, is to obtain a minimum value of 50 MPa
for roads with medium or heavy traffic.
In some situations it may prove cost-effective to improve the
roadbed beyond the value strictly necessary for construction of the
pavement to reduce the total thickness of the pavement structure
itself. In such a case an optimization study is made of the capping
layer and pavement.
Two methods have been proposed. First, Construction of Embank-
ments and Capping Layers fixes the thickness of the capping layer
according to the capping material, the roadbed soil, and the desired
final bearing capacity. These proposals were drawn up by analyzing
117
various pavement structures by the rational method. For the subse-
quent design of the pavement structure the capping layer and roadbed
soil assembly is considered a homogeneous half-space characterized
by a resilient modulus value. Second, in a mechanistic procedure, the
capping layer is integrated into the multilayered system on a par with
a pavement layer, but its design is checked with a different criterion.
The mechanical characteristics of the capping layer are either values
given as a reference for untreated graded aggregate materials or they
are the result of laboratory tests.
GUIDELINES OF CURRENT DESIGN METHOD
The French method of design combines the contributions of rational
mechanics with experimental elements. A mechanics-based method
is used to define the pavement structure model and to calculate strains
and stresses generated by the standard load. The results of laboratory
tests on fatigue damage to pavement materials are then used to assess
the fatigue resistance of the structure. Finally, knowledge derived
from the observation of pavement performance (data from test sec-
tions or from experiments on the Laboratoire Central des Ponts et
Chaussées’ circular test track) are used to specify the criterion for
permanent deformation of the roadbed and unbound layers and adjust
the results of the mechanical analysis.
This process takes into account any effects that cannot be
accounted for by the mathematical model because of the simplifi-
cations it makes or because of biases within the results of labora-
tory tests used to describe material properties.
The following sections present the principal concepts that have
been adopted.
Although the process for producing pavement-layer materials
and the precautions taken when laying them make it possible to
limit variations in characteristics, the development of fatigue dam-
age is inherently random, as shown by laboratory fatigue-test
results. Added to these aspects specific to the materials is the vari-
ability of the pavement-layer thicknesses, the randomness of which
depends on construction methods and quality of work. The con-
junction of all these sources of uncertainty makes assessing the risk
of pavement deterioration in probabilistic terms a necessity.
Concepts of Initial Period and Design Risk
The notion of pavement lifetime cannot easily be defined and used
on a practical basis. Deterioration develops randomly and safety and
cost-effectiveness concerns always require maintenance operations
to be performed before complete pavement failure. Another term of
reference must be sought for the design of pavement projects.
Because of the probabilistic nature of pavement design, the aim
that can be adopted is for the probability of structural deterioration
that occurs before a given period of p years to be less than a deter-
mined value. This probability of failure is called the design risk,
and the period of p years is the initial design period.
Factors of Pavement Design
The design method takes into consideration traffic, environment
(climatic data), roadbed, pavement materials, and quality of work.
Traffic
Pavements are designed in relation to heavy truck traffic. The
design method requires the actual traffic, consisting of vary-
118
ing combinations of vehicles with different axle loads and axle
configurations, to be converted into a cumulative number (NE)
of passages of reference axle loads. In France, the reference axle
is the isolated axle with 130-kN dual wheels.
The equivalence relations between different axles are equiva-
lence values of unit damage. They are derived from calculations
of stresses in the pavement structure and take into account
the fatigue behavior of the materials. Axle-load equivalency fac-
tors depend on the material, the type of damage, and the pavement
structure.
Table 1 defines the limits of Ti traffic classes (based on the
average daily truck traffic on the most heavily loaded lane dur-
ing the year of opening to traffic) and gives the average heavy
truck equivalency coefficients used for the various types of
pavements.
Environment Climatic Data
For asphalt pavements, pavement design is based on constant
equivalent temperature of the pavement material. For metropolitan
France a value of 15°C is usually adopted. The calculation of the
equivalent temperature, like the conversion of mixed traffic to an
equivalent number of single-axle loads, is based on a cumulative
damage equivalence.
Pavement strength during freeze-and-thaw periods is assessed
separately from the design for traffic loads. Performance assess-
ment during thaw is intended to define a permissible frost index for
the pavement corresponding to a limit below which swelling and
the loss of bearing capacity will remain low enough not to give rise
to defects or necessitate traffic restraints.
Roadbed
The characterization of roadbed soils, the selection of materials suit-
able for use in the capping layer, and construction requirements are
TABLE 1 Traffic Classes and Average Heavy Truck Equivalency Coefficient Values
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD 1539
fixed in France by Construction of Embankments and Capping Lay-
ers (10). For the pavement structure design the roadbed is usually
described by a Young’s resilient modulus value considered repre-
sentative of the most unfavorable hydric state (except thaw period).
Pavement Materials
A set of standards codifies the families of pavement materials and de-
fines classes for each of them on the basis of the quality of the constitu-
ents, certain characteristics, and mechanical properties of the mixes.
The design method applies to those materials. If pavement materials
are used that do not comply with the standards in some respects, only
a specific laboratory study, supplemented as necessary by experi-
mental test sections, will enable their field of use to be specified.
The mechanical strength and deformability values are adopted on
the basis of laboratory studies and are derived from the mean values
obtained on the reference mix according to the standards that define
mix-design methodologies. The fatigue behavior of the materials is
determined from the results of standardized displacement-controlled
bending tests. Because of the inherently disperse nature of fatigue-
test results, characteristic values of such dispersion—derived from
syntheses of many studies—are given for the various families of
materials. This dispersion is taken into account to determine the
working strains and stresses.
Quality of Work
The design method applies to cases that comply with the speci-
fications and state of the art of materials mixing and paving. The
specifications ensure consistency of mix design and mechanical char-
acteristics. Although these factors can be mastered, structures are still
affected by random variations in layer thicknesses. The structural
design takes this dispersion into account by selecting values derived
from both observations on job sites where work has been performed
to the standards and functions of the construction methods used.
Corté and Goux 119

Determination of Working Stresses or Strains

Working stress or strain values in the pavement courses are deter-

mined on the basis of the characteristics of material fatigue behavior,
cumulative traffic, and design risk. A calibration coefficient is used
to correct deviations between the predictions derived from the design
model and observations of pavement behavior.

Relation Between Working Stresses or Strains and

Design Risk

Because the variability of the mechanical characteristics of pavement

materials is kept within relatively narrow limits for materials pro-
duced and laid in accordance with standards and instructions, the
only factors taken into account to allow for the variability in the
occurrence and development of pavement damage are dispersions in
fatigue-test results and layer thicknesses on construction. The fatigue
curve derived from laboratory tests is defined for a failure probabil-
ity of 50 percent. The observed dispersion is analyzed as conforming
to a normal law with a standard deviation on the decimal logarithm
of the number of cycles at failure (SN). The dispersion in the layer
thicknesses is also considered as being distributed according to a nor-
mal law, with a standard deviation Sh.
As an example, a pavement is to be designed for an initial design
period during which the expected cumulative traffic is a given equiv-
alent reference axle-load number, NE. Designing this pavement for
a risk r over this period means designing it so that the probability of
failure for NE cycles is no more than r. The standard deviation, d,
associated with the variable logN, is inferred from the combination
of dispersion factors SN and Sh by the following relation:
FIGURE 1 Determination of working strain (ead) from fatigue-
test results.
d 5 [SN 1 (c /b )Sh ]
2 2 2 2 0.5
(1)

where c is the coefficient linking the variation in strain (or stress) in
the pavement to the random variation in thickness Dh calculated by:
log« 5 log«0 2 cDh (2)
and b is the slope of the fatigue law of the material, expressed in the
form of a bilogarithmic law.
Figure 1 illustrates how to infer the working-strain value for a
given NE and r.
Calibration Coefficient
The calculation of working stresses for bound pavement layers is
given a calibration coefficient (kc), which corrects the difference
between predictions of the calculation method and the observations
of pavement performance. The values of kc are mostly derived from
inverse analyses of the performance of various new and strengthened
pavements that were conducted between 1975 and 1985. These val-
ues are attached to pavement materials complying with the instruc-
tions issued by the Directorate of Roads; a linear, flexible, multilayer
design model; and a description of the fatigue behavior of materials,
derived from bending-fatigue tests such as those now defined by the
standards.
It is not permissible to make direct use of the kc values given
for design models or fatigue-test protocols different from those
described (for example, calculations by the finite-element method
with nonlinear behavior laws, or load-controlled fatigue tests
for asphalt materials). Determination of a calibration coeffi-
cient value for new materials is based on the analysis of pave-
ment performance under traffic over a long enough period of
time to take into account seasonal climatic effects. The LCPC
circular test track is an accelerated test method yielding infor-
mation useful for adjustment, but in this case the determination
must be based on a comparison with materials and structures with
well-known road performance.
Calculation of Pavement-Structure Stresses and
Strains and Design Criteria
Modeling Pavement Structures
For the design method, the pavement structures are represented by
an elastic multilayer arrangement with continuity conditions at the
layers’ interfaces that vary according to the materials. The stresses
and strains under the reference axle load can be calculated easily by
a computer program (6,11).
The viscoelasticity of asphalt layers is allowed for in the choice
of Young’s modulus for the calculation, taking into account the dis-
tribution of annual temperatures and the mean rates of stresses (as a
rule, 15°C and 10 Hz the values are selected).
For concrete pavements, calculations by the finite-element
method (9) were used to assess the increase in stresses under the ref-
erence axle load caused by the combined effect of the presence of
joints and thermal gradients in the slab. An augmenting coefficient
was inferred and was applied to the stress value calculated at the slab
center using a Burmister model.
120
For semirigid pavements constructed in two layers with pre-
cracking of the base layer and imposed hardness characteristics for
the choice of aggregates, experience has indicated that interlocking
can be maintained for a long time at the shrinkage cracks. Under
these conditions the calculation of stresses is also based on a con-
tinuous model. For the most rigid materials with characteristics
verging on those of cement concrete, an augmenting coefficient is
nevertheless applied to achieve continuity in design between semi-
rigid and concrete pavements.
For pavement layers of untreated graded aggregate the modulus
values used in the calculations have not yet been inferred from triax-
ial laboratory tests on the material used. The design method proposes
values according to the inherent characteristics of the aggregate. It
implicitly allows for the nonlinear nature of these materials by dif-
ferentiating the choice of modulus according to the bearing capacity
of the subgrade and the thickness of the overlaying asphalt course.
Design Criteria
The same approach is used to determine the layer thicknesses of
flexible, thick asphalt, semirigid, composite, inverse, and cement
concrete pavements. However, only the most common structures are
discussed.
Subgrade and Untreated Graded Aggregate The extent of
rutting in subgrade and unbound pavement courses, generated by
repeated traffic loads, is restricted by limiting the vertical strain
value ez on the top of these courses. A criterion of ez,ad equal to f(NE)
has been selected from observations on some asphalt pavements.
For carriageways with medium or heavy traffic:
ez,ad 5 0.012(NE)20.222 (3)
where NE is the number of equivalent axle loads calculated for an
aggressiveness coefficient of 1.
For low-trafficked carriageways, a higher rutting limit is accepted
and the criterion becomes:
ez,ad 5 0.016(NE)20.222 (4)
Asphalt pavements The design criterion for asphalt pavements
is the strain at the bottom of the tensile stressed layers. The value of
et,ad is given by the relation:
et,ad 5 e(NE, ueq, f )krkcks (5)
where e(NE, ueq, f ) is strain for which conventional failure of a sam-
ple under bending stress is obtained at the end of NE cycles with a
50 percent probability, for the equivalent temperature ueq, and at the
characteristic frequency f of the stresses to which the relevant layer
is subjected.
The fatigue law for asphalt materials is represented by a relation
of the type:
b
e( NE, θeq , f ) = e 6 (θeq , f ) 6 
NE (6)
 10 
For structures under a temperate climate and positive tempera-
tures, for which no experimental data are available, it will often be
acceptable to consider that the influence of temperature on fatigue
behavior is represented by the relation:
e6(u)E(u)0.5 5 constant (7)
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD 1539
The fatigue law is usually determined experimentally for a tem-
perature of 10°C and a frequency of 25 Hz. For base courses the
characteristic frequency of stresses is usually considered to be
approximately 10 Hz and the frequency correction between 10 and
25 Hz on the value of e6 is usually disregarded for average temper-
atures. Under these conditions, e(NE, ueq, f ) is expressed in the form:
0.5
  (10 o C)    NE  b
e( NE, θeq , f ) = e 6 (10 o C, 25Hz)  E   (8)
  E(θeq )    10 
6
The preceding assumptions are unacceptable in the presence of
high temperatures; different characteristic frequency of stresses
(slow traffic, wearing course); and material whose rheology devi-
ates from that of traditional asphalt products. In these cases, the
expression of e(NE, ueq, f ) must be inferred from the results of
fatigue studies under suitable test conditions.
kr is a coefficient that adjusts the working-strain value to the
design risk adopted on the basis of factors of dispersion in both the
thickness (Sh) and the results of fatigue tests (SN).
kr 5 10-ubd (9)
where
u 5 centered reduced variable associated with risk r,
b 5 slope of the fatigue law for the material (bilogarithmic law),
and
d 5 standard deviation of the distribution of logN at failure.
kc is the calibration coefficient for the purpose of adjusting the
results of the design model to the performance observed on pave-
ments of the same type as shown in Table 2. ks is a reducing coeffi-
cient that takes into account the effect of local hetereogeneousness in
the bearing capacity of road bed layers with low rigidity (Table 2).
Pavements with Hydraulic-Binder-Treated Base and Concrete
Pavements For these pavements the design criterion is the
stress at the base of the tensile-stressed layers. The value of st,ad, for
N loadings, is given by the relation:
st,ad 5 st(NE) kr kd kc ks (10)
where st (NE) is stress for which flexural failure on a 360-day sam-
ple is obtained for NE loadings.
Although the fatigue law for treated materials can usually be rep-
resented by the following expression
σ
= 1 + β log N (11)
σ0
it is often convenient to approximate it by an expression in the
following form:
st 5 A Nb (12)
When an adjustment is made to the values at 105 and 107 cycles, b
and b are linked by the following:
 (1 + 5β) 
b = 0.5 log   (13)
 (1 + 7β) 
With this approximation, st(N) is expressed in the following form:
N b
σ t ( N ) = (1 + 6β) 6  σ 0 (14)
 10 
Corté and Goux 121

TABLE 2 k Coefficients for Calculation of Working Stress and Strains

kr is a coefficient that adjusts the value of working stress to the Working-Strain Values
adopted design risk, as described earlier, for asphalt pavements. kd
is a coefficient introduced to take into account the effect of discon- Untreated Materials Vertical strain ez,ad of the subgrade equals
tinuities corresponding to joints or shrinkage cracks and to the com- 0.012 (NE)20.222 or 433 ? 1026.
bined action of thermal gradients in the case of cement concrete
surface slabs (Table 2). kc is the calibration coefficient (Table 2). ks Base Asphalt Concrete Because the subbase and base courses
is a reducing coefficient that takes into account the effect of local are bonded, only the subbase layer need be considered for tensile
heterogeneousness in the bearing capacity of roadbed layers with strain (et,ad).
low rigidity, as indicated for asphalt pavements. e t , ad = e( NE, θeq , f ) kr kc ks
 3.14 ⋅ 10 
0.5
 12, 300 
6
e ( NE, θeq , f ) = 90 • 10 −6 • •   − 0.2
Definition of Layer Thicknesses  9, 300   10 6 
= 82 • 10 −6
The layer thicknesses derived from calculations that determine kr = 10 − ubδ = 0.810
stresses and strains in the structure are adjusted to fix the thick-
nesses of the layers to be laid, taking into account the technologi- where
cal constraints of minimum and maximum thicknesses to achieve r 5 12 percent,
objectives for compaction and evenness; minimizing the number of u 5 21.175,
interfaces, thereby reducing the risk of defects at these levels; and b 5 20.2,
guaranteeing adequate protection of treated bases against phenom- c 5 0.02, 0.5
 c  
2
ena not yet addressed by calculations (including reflective cracks). δ = SN 2 +  2  Sh 2  = 0.391,
 b  
kc 5 1.3, and
EXAMPLES OF PAVEMENT DESIGN ks 5 1

Asphalt Pavement gives

Consider an average daily traffic of 210 heavy trucks and a geo-
metric growth rate of 7 percent per year for pavement designed for
an initial duration of 20 years. The cumulative traffic per lane is
then 3.14 3 106. With a mean coefficient of aggressiveness (CAM)
of 1, the number of 130-kN equivalent axles (NE) is 3.14 3 106.
The selected design risk for this road is 12 percent. The long-term
bearing capacity of the subgrade is 120 MPa (Poisson ratio, n 5
0.35).
The mechanical characteristics of the asphalt materials are given
in Table 3. The equivalent temperature of the asphalt materials cho-
sen in the example is 15°C.
All interfaces are bonded. Sh for base asphalt concrete is min.
[max. (1; 0.3h 2 2); 2.5] cm.
et,ad 5 86 . 1026
Calculation of Stresses and Strains
ez at the top of the subgrade and et at the bottom of the pavement
asphalt subbase layer have been computed with the Alizé software
for different thicknesses, as shown in Table 3. Comparison with the
calculated working strains indicates a minimum thickness of 18 cm
for the base and subbase layers.
Design
The thickness of the layers must be between 10 and 15 cm for base
asphalt concrete 0/20, which leads to two layers each 10 cm thick,
thicker than strictly necessary. It is not easy to obtain a high-
122 TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD 1539

TABLE 3 Example of Asphalt-Pavement Design (Input Data and Results)

quality subbase with a thickness of only 10 cm because this requires kr is calculated as follows:
precise leveling of the roadbed, so the choice made for the surface
layer may be reconsidered. A thicker layer would allow the base to be kr 5 102ubd
executed in a single layer of 16 cm at most. Choosing a surface layer
composed of a wearing course 4 cm thick with a 6-cm bounding layer where
leads to the results indicated in the final calculations in Table 3. r 5 5 percent,
The solution with a 14-cm base asphalt concrete topped by a u 5 21.645,
bounding layer 6 cm thick and a 4-cm wearing course gives accept- 1
b 5 2},
able strains. This structure, which comprises the same number of 16
layers as the initial 6/10/10 structure, is likely to yield better results c 5 0.02 cm21, and
for compactness and evenness.
3 1 2 4
c2 0.5
d 5 SN 2 1 } Sh2 5 1.050.
b2
1
giving a value for kr of 0.78, kd of } , and kc of 1.4. Finally, st,ad
Continuous Reinforced Concrete Pavement equals 1.49 MPa. 1.47

The average daily traffic is 475 heavy trucks per lane with a geo-
metric growth rate of 7 percent per year. The pavement is designed Working Stress Values of Subbase
for an initial duration of 20 years. This results in cumulative traffic
per lane N of 7.10 • 106. With a mean CAM of the traffic of 1.3, NE st,ad 5 st(NE) kr kc ks
equals 9.24 • 106. The long-term bearing capacity of the subgrade is
50 MPa (n 5 0.35) where
2_1
The design risk selected for the continuously reinforced concrete st (NE) 5 1.63 3 9.24 15 5 1.41 MPa,
(CRC) (r1) is 5 percent, and for the subbase (r2) it is 50 percent. kr 5 1,
The mechanical characteristics of the materials are given in kc 5 1.5, and
Table 4. The cement concrete of the CRC layer corresponds to 1
Strength Class 5 of the standard (tensile strength ft 5 3.3 MPa). The ks 5 }
1.5
lean concrete of the subbase corresponds to Class 3 of the standard
giving a st,ad of 1.92 MPa.
to offer sufficient resistance to erodability ( ft 5 2.0 MPa).
Contact conditions at the layers’ interfaces are no bond between Design
the CRC layer and the subbase and perfect bond between subbase
and subgrade. Sh for the layer thickness is 1 cm for the CRC layer The thickness of the subbase is fixed in advance to the minimum
and 3 cm for subbase. thickness recommended (i.e., 15 cm). Calculations on the basis of
the continuous model with the Alizé software yield the results given
Working Stress Values of CRC Layer in Table 4.
The stress in the subbase is much less than the working value.
Tensile stress is represented by st,ad. Compared to the solution of 22 cm of CRC, because the cost of the
lean subbase concrete is less, it is worth investigating whether a
st,ad 5 st(NE) kr kc kd structure with a thicker subbase works out to be less expensive.
_ Finally, a 20-cm-thick CRC layer would be selected over a 17-cm
21
where st (NE) is 2.15 • 9.24 16 , which equals 1.87 MPa. subbase of lean concrete.
Corté and Goux
TABLE 4 Example of CRC Pavement Design (Input Data and Results)
POSSIBILITIES OFFERED BY USE OF FRENCH
DESIGN METHOD
The main feature of a rational method as opposed to an empirical
method is the possibility of adapting it to different technical, cli-
matic, and economic contexts.
Conversion of Traffic to Equivalent Axles
Calculations on the basis of elastic multilayer models, combined
with measurements in pavement structures using strain gauges, have
enabled equivalences to be determined in terms of the damage
caused to the pavement structure by the various types of heavy truck
axles on the roads.
The aggressiveness (A) of any axle (the relation between the
damage caused by the axle and that caused by the reference axle,
which is an isolated axle load with 130-kN dual wheels) is calcu-
lated with equivalence coefficients according to the structure type
as follows:
P α
A = K  (15)
 Po 
where
K 5 the equivalence factor of the axle,
P 5 the axle weight,
Po 5 the reference axle, and
a 5 a function of the type of material and structure.
By applying Miner’s law, the aggressiveness of the traffic is
defined as the mean level of the aggressiveness values of the heavy
trucks of which it is composed. This method thus allows all patterns
of traffic, axle types, and axle loads to be taken into account.
For that purpose in France, 400 fixed weighing stations for mov-
ing vehicles, consisting of piezocables and magnetic loops, are
being installed on the national network. For more specific pavement
design studies, mobile stations can be used.
Selection of Mechanical Characteristics of
Materials for Design
For materials codified by French standards, the design guide gives
for each class the reference values of mechanical performance to be
used. These usually correspond to the characteristics at the lower
123
limit of the class. To optimize structure design by using the actual
characteristics of the materials selected for a given project, the guide
also defines how to infer the mechanical parameters necessary for
modeling and calculating the working stresses from laboratory tests.
Economic conditions and local resources may require the use of
materials in which one or more of the characteristics do not comply
with the requirements of the standards. In such a case the same lab-
oratory tests and methods as those for standardized materials can be
used to infer design parameters. But the mix design study must be
more thorough, particularly to cover the probable range of physical
and mechanical characteristics, taking into account the constituents
and construction conditions.
Setting Parameters for Investment Strategy
An owner’s investment and maintenance strategies for a road net-
work usually have to be developed on the basis of the quality of the
service desired for the road user, and they have to meet budgetary
constraints. Investment strategies in France are differentiated ac-
cording to the extent of the initial investment.
For the pavement structure, the parameters included in the design
are the initial design period and the design risk. The correspondence
is then as follows:
• When the targeted service quality is high, the initial investment
will be high and will result in an initial design period exceeding 20
years and a low risk (between 2 and 15 percent).
• Short lifetimes and high design risk will lead to lower invest-
ment, but service quality will deteriorate sooner.
• For staged construction, the thickness of the road courses is
increased by successive resurfacing with the objective of adapting
the structure to evolutions of the traffic and its aggressiveness. The
initial structure is then designed for a low risk but a short lifetime
during which it will not undergo any maintenance except for
renewal of the wearing course. However, the initial design must
ensure that the structure is protected against freeze-thaw phenom-
ena from the start.
CONCLUSIONS
The described design method applies in essence to low-trafficked
roads (except for unsurfaced roads), motorway structures, and var-
ious investment and maintenance strategies.
124
Although the designs have been adjusted to climatic conditions
and traveling loads legally permitted in France, the rational
approach used to address these various factors enables transposition
to other contexts.
REFERENCES
1. Catalog of Standard New Pavement Structures (in French). SETRA,
Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, 1977.
2. Design Manual for Low-Trafficked New Pavements (in French).
SETRA, Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, July 1981.
3. Update of Catalog of Standard New Pavement Structures and Design
Guide for the Strengthening of Flexible Pavements (in French). SETRA,
Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, April 1988.
4. Design of Pavement Structures, Technical Guide (in French). SETRA,
Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, Dec. 1994.
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD 1539
5. Catalog of Standard New Pavement Structures (in French). DRCR,
SETRA, Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, 1971.
6. ALIZÉ Software. Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris,
France.
7. Bonnot, J., P. Autret, and A. de Boissoudy. Design of Asphalt Overlays
for Pavements. Proc., 4th International Conference on the Design of
Flexible Pavements, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1977, pp. 557–588.
8. Autret, P., A. de Boissoudy, and J.P. Marchand. Using ALIZÉ III. Pre-
sented at the 5th International Conference on the Design of Flexible
Pavements, Delft, Netherlands.
9. CESAR-LCPC Software. Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées,
Paris, France.
10. Construction of Embankments and Capping Layers, Technical Hand-
book, (in French). SETRA, Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées,
Sept. 1992.
11. ECOROUTE 4 Software. Presses de l’ENPC, Paris, France.
Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Pavement Rehabili-
tation.