Effect of temperature variation on pavement responses using 3D multilayered elastic analysis

The response of flexible pavement is largely influenced by the resilient modulus of the pavement profile. Different methods/approaches have been adopted in order to estimate or measure the resilient modulus of each layer assuming an average modulus within the layer. To account for the variation in the modulus of elasticity with depth within a layer, the layer should be divided into several sublayers and the modulus should be gradually varied between the layers. A powerful and innovative program has been developed utilizing the unique propagator matrix method and the cylindrical system of vector functions. Our new program can predict accurately and efficiently the response of flexible pavements of any number of layers/sublayers. Numerical results in this paper showed that, instead of assuming one response due to an average modulus, modulus variation with depth should be considered in any pavement analysis since it can capture the response envelopes of the pavement.