Effect of Failure Criteria on Stress and Strain Analysis of Asphalt Pavement in Tropical Areas

A review of pavement thickness designs shows that two kinds of failure criteria are used in most cases. They are: 1) The tension strain under the asphalt layer that causes cracking and 2) the vertical compression strain on the sub-grade that causes deflection. In this study, various factors affecting thickness design are first defined and more than 216 pavement conditions are introduced. Structures are analyzed using the Flex pass program and their strains and stresses are investigated severally by choosing the failure criteria one at a time.