Effect of asphalt concrete layer thickness on temperature distribution in the semi-rigid pavement

The performance of a cement-treated base in semi-rigid pavements is greatly influenced by temperature change. Therefore, the thickness of asphalt concrete (AC) layer is one of the biggest concerns when designing semi-rigid pavement structures. The article evaluated the effect of AC layer thickness on the temperature distribution in semi-rigid pavement. First, a large-scale model for a semi-rigid pavement structure with a 13-cm AC surface layer placed on a 15-cm CTB layer was constructed to monitor temperature fluctuation in the pavement. This temperature monitoring result was then used for proposing and verifying a numeric prediction model developed in the ANSYS program to estimate the temperature distribution in the pavement structure. The model was then applied to cases of changing AC thicknesses to analyze the effect on CTB temperature. The results showed that the thickness of the AC layer significantly influenced the temperature distribution in the semi-rigid pavement; the thicker AC layer resulted in a low-temperature distribution in CTB.