Flexible Pavement Design

Flexible pavements depend on aggregate interlock, particle friction, and cohesion for stability:

In flexible pavement, the highest-quality materials are located in the subgrade:

The principal elements of flexible pavement structure are wearing surface, base, subbase, and subgrade:

The base layer of flexible pavement is primarily responsible for spreading the stresses created by wheel loads acting on the wearing surface:

Subbase layer in flexible pavement is always made of granular material and is used in areas with severe frost action or extremely weak subgrade soil:

Flexible pavements are primarily designed to distribute loads to the surface rather than the subgrade.

The wearing surface in flexible pavements must be capable of withstanding wear and abrasive effects of moving vehicles.

The base layer in flexible pavements is primarily responsible for spreading the stresses created by wheel loads acting on the wearing surface.

In some cases, the subgrade in flexible pavements will simply be the natural earth surface.

Subbase layer in flexible pavements is always made of granular material and is used in areas with severe frost action or extremely weak subgrade soil.