NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF UNPAVED ROADS AFTER SURFACE MAINTENANCE
unpaved road, geosynthetic, surface maintenance, numerical analysis
Unpaved roads are important roads that often connect urban to rural areas. Geosynthetics are reinforcing materials that are used in these roads in order to generate, for example, a better structure support capacity, less deformations, better distribution and stress transfer. The improvement in mechanical performance makes performing surface maintenance less necessary and thus the costs related to repairs decrease in the long term. When it comes to reinforcement, the most applied types of Geosynthetics are geogrids and geotextiles. Numerical analyses to predict certain behaviours of the structure are efficient and capable of studying previously the benefit in the use of this reinforcing material. This research uses numerical to simulate an unpaved road under cyclic loading. The structure is formed by a fill layer, a compressible subgrade and a geosynthetic layer placed at the fill-subgrade interface. Surface maintenance simulations were also performed and analyzed. The methodology used was based on the Stiffness Degradation Method and the software used is based on the finite element method. Comparisons between numerical and experimental results were made and it was concluded that most of the simulations showed a good agreement with the experimental test result. The numerical results of surface displacements were the ones that best agreed with the experimental ones in contrast with the vertical stresses in the subgrade probably due to the high level of plastification inside the structure along the tests.