University of California Pavement Research Center

This report is the second in a series which describe the results of tests on full-scale pavements constructed at the Richmond Field Station (RFS) which have been designed and constructed according to Caltrans procedures. It contains a summary of the results and their interpretation of the Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) tests on the first of four pavement test sections, an asphalt-concrete section containing an asphalt-treated permeable base (ATPB), designated section 500RF. The tests on the four test sections have been performed as part of Goal 1 of the CAL/APT Strategic Plan (1). One objective of the test program [described in Reference (2)] is to develop data to quantitatively verify existing Caltrans pavement design methodologies for Asphalt Treated Permeable Base (ATPB) pavements and conventional Aggregate Base (AB) pavements with regard to failure under trafficking at moderate temperatures (Goal 1), while preparing a uniform platform on which overlays (Goal 3 of the Strategic Plan) will be constructed which also will be trafficked. The objective of the program includes: quantification of the effective elastic moduli of the various pavement layers, based on an ad-hoc use of layered elastic analysis; quantification of the stress dependence of the pavement layers; determination of the failure mechanisms of the various layers; and determination and comparison of the fatigue lives of the two types of pavement structure.