A new design approach for mine haul road pavements with stabilized layers

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Linping Wu, Riley Cram, Diana Nicholson, Wei Victor Liu

• The overall objective of the proposed research was to develop a new design approach for mine haul road pavements with stabilized layers. To achieve the proposed research, 2D and 3D Finite Element Models (FEM) were first developed and validated. Then, the validated model was used to investigate the effects of stabilization on the strain and deflection of mine haul roads and rural municipal roads. It was found that stabilization reduces the strain and deflection of roads, herein enhancing the performance. Furthermore, the modelling results indicate that stabilization of lower layers was more effective than that of the surface layer in reducing the strain and deflection. After that, a new design approach was developed based on the theories of elasticity and critical strain limit (CSL) to improve the existing CBR design method. The proposed design method was verified through numerical modelling using the validated FEM model. The results have shown that the proposed design method performed better than the existing CBR design method, especially for roads for ultra-large trucks. Also, it was observed that the design thickness could be reduced if the road is stabilized. Lastly, a 3D tire model of off-the-road trucks was established and assembled with the pavement model for the estimation of the rolling resistance. The results from numerical models suggest that the stiffness change due to road stabilization can noticeably reduce the rolling resistance and fuel consumption.
  Despite these findings, the current study has its limitations that need continued investigation. Our 2D model observed that a large portion of rolling resistance could be attributed to road roughness, suggesting that the surface roughness should be included in the effects of stabilization on rolling resistance. To further the investigation, experimental work should be carried out to quantify the effects of stabilization on the change in properties of mine haul roads, and incorporated into the numerical models.

• Date created

  2022-09-16

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Mine haul road, Design approach, Finite element model, Stabilization, Rolling resistance

• Type of Item

  Report

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-a9ww-k483

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International