SPECIAL DEFLECTION STUDIES ON FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT

THE FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE STUDY AT THE AASHO ROAD TEST INDICATED THAT THE LIFE OF A PAVEMENT WAS RELATED TO THE LEVEL OF PAVEMENT DEFLECTION AS MEASURED WITH THE BENKELMAN BEAM. IT IS PROBABLE, THEREFORE, THAT PLANNERS OF SATELLITE OR PAVEMENT EVALUATION PROGRAMS WILL INCLUDE MEASUREMENTS OF PAVEMENT DEFLECTION IN THEIR EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMS. IN ORDER TO INTERPRET THE MEASUREMENTS OF PAVEMENT DEFLECTION TAKEN IN ANY EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM, SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE MEASUREMENT IS REQUIRED. AT THE AASHO ROAD TEST SPECIAL PAVEMENT DEFLECTION EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE EFFECT OF VARYING THE BENKELMAN BEAM PROCEDURE AND TO CONSIDER AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF MEASUREMENT USING AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE. NUMEROUS OTHER SPECIAL EXPERIMENTS WERE CARRIED OUT TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP OF PAVEMENT DEFLECTION TO WHEEL LOAD, VEHICLE SPEED, TIRE PRESSURE AND PAVEMENT TEMPERATURE. IN ADDITION, A PROGRAM OF PLATE LOAD TESTING MADE POSSIBLE A CORRELATION BETWEEN PLATE LOAD TEST DATA AND BENKELMAN BEAM DATA. TEST DATA ARE SUMMARIZED BY MEANS OF TABLES, GRAPHS AND MATHEMATICAL EQUATIONS. THE EQUATIONS EXPRESS THE PAVEMENT DEFLECTION AS FUNCTIONS OF WHEEL LOAD, VEHICLE SPEED AND PAVEMENT TEMPERATURE. /AUTHOR/