Hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of materials used in road pavement construction

Abstract

This Ph.D thesis presents a study on the hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of materials used in road pavement construction. With this purpose, different road materials as asphalt mixtures, soils under unsaturated conditions, and subsurface drainage systems, have been evaluated. Accordingly, the development of this thesis has been organized in seven main research chapters. The main topics of study have been as follows: water flow, damage and reinforcement evaluation of different asphalt mixtures, hydraulic behaviour of unsaturated soils: numerical modelling and experimentation, and design of a new prefabricated prototype for road subdrainage by using rapid prototyping technology and experimental validation tests. The main results of each of these areas of study are presented in this document. Finally, the present Ph.D thesis aims at contributing to the advance in the state of knowledge of materials used in the road construction.