Lecture 21

Design of White-topping Overlays

Design of White-topping
IRC:SP-76-2015
 White-topping

• White-topping: It is defined as a Portland cement concrete (PCC) overlay constructed on the top of an existing
bituminous pavement. White-topping is thus PCC resurfacing (overlay) as a rehabilitation or structural strengthening
alternative on bituminous pavement

• White-topping is quite common is USA, Europe on Airports, Inter-state roads, Primary and secondary roads, local
roads and streets, parking lot

• Application of white-topping in India: Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Nagpur, and other cities
• Classification of white-topping
1. Conventional white-topping: Thickness > 200 mm (Same as rigid pavement) (CWT)
2. Thin white-topping: Thickness: 100-200 mm (TWT)
3. Ultra-thin white-topping: Thickness < 100 mm (UTWT) White-topping
Existing HMA

ASSESS CONDITION OF EXISTING ROADS BEFORE RECOMMENDATIONS

Major factors: load stress, temperature stress, # of load repetitions, thickness, quality of existing pavement
 Concepts UTWT/TWT
1. Bonded/Unbonded: Shift of Neural Axis- Which results much of
PCC area comes under compression, less tensile stress, and therefore a
lesser thickness is required compared to conventional PCC

Assumption: Bonded white-topping (Full

bond is ideal, usually partial bond is
realized, stress lie in between bonded
and unbonded case.

2. Size of slab and spacing of joints: Less

joint spacing, which reduces temperature
stress
 Sites for TWT/UTWT

Sites for UTWT Overlays

- Low volume roads (urban streets, village roads)
- Parking lots
- Footpath
- Residential street
- Shoulders
- Intersections
Sites for TWT Overlays
- Rural roads
- Median to moderate heavy volume roads (MDR, SH, low traffic NH)
- Intersections
- Minor Airports pavements
 Benefits of White-toppings

- Extended service life

- Increased structural capacity
- Reduced maintenance requirement
- Lower life-cycle cost compared to bituminous overlay
- Improve durability and riding quality of deteriorated bituminous pavement
surface
- Long life, low maintenance, low life cycle cost
- Rutting, cracking absent in white-topping
- Conventional WT can improves structural capacity of existing bituminous pavement
 Comparison of CWT, TWT, and UTWT
CWT (Conventional white
Parameter topping) TWT (thin white topping) UTWT (ultra thin white topping)
Thickness >200 mm 100-200 mm <100 mm
Bond with existing flexible pavement Not mandatory Not mandatory (good to have) Yes, required
Existing BC as DLC and
design as rigid pavement
Design IRC58 IRC SP76 IRC SP76
Joint spacing 4-4.5 m 0.6-1.2 m 0.6-1.2 m
Dowel bar Yes/No No (except construction joint) No (except construction joint)
Tie bar Yes No (may be) No
IRC 58-2001; No reduction in
stress
Load stress (Edge stress) ACPA ACPA
Temperature stress Braduary coefficient method ACPA ACPA
Allowable repetitions for fatigue
(bituminous pavement short life) Riley, 2005 and Mack et al. 1997 Riley, 2005 and Mack et al. 1997
Effective k BBD or CBR BBD or CBR BBD or CBR
Min thickness of HMA None 75-100 mm (excluding milling) 75-100 mm (excluding milling)
Traffic type Heavy Not heavy Not heavy
Cement concrete with/without Cement concrete with/without
Material fibre fibre Cement concrete with/without fibre
Concrete type M40 M40 or greater M40 or greater
Open traffic 28 days 28 days 28 days
Condition of existing pavement Does not matter significantly Condition important Condition important
 Steps for Construction

1. Milling: Removal of rutting, roughness surface (25-50 mm), and provide

profile correction course of 50 mm DBM (minimum thickness of HMA: 75
mm total – including new and existing)
2. Repair of existing pavement
3. Cleaning
4. Placing, finishing, texture and curing
5. Cutting joints, sealing joints.
Cleaning of the dust using high pressure air
 Straight Rails should be
Used to get a perfect
Edge for concrete slab

Laying of rails to run the Paver Machine

 Workability of fresh concrete (Slump test)
11
 FLEXURE TESTED SPECIMEN
12
Spreading, compaction & finishing of
concrete with screed & float
 Compaction with
Needle Vibrators

Compaction with
Screed Vibrators
(only for lower thickness
Some Finishing Touches
Surface Texturing being done
 Tine Texture (preferred)

Brush Texture

Finished Surface after texturing

Groove cutting in progress
 Sawing Joint with Saw
Cut Machine

Full Depth Crack Induced under

Saw Cut
Curing of concrete by water ponding for 14 days
 1m
1m

CONCRETE PANLES
& SEALED JOINTS
-1 m X 1 m SIZE
 Typical distresses observed in MnROAD BCOA cells
(Barman et al., 2010; Vandenbossche, 2003; Burnham, 2006).

Longitudinal cracks Transverse cracks Corner cracks

 Steps for Design of White-topping

Step 1: Estimate traffic (Axle load repetition)

Step 2: Evaluate soaked CBR/ k value of subgrade
Step 3: Find modified ‘k’ value of existing pavement
Step 4: Assume a trial thickness and joint spacing
Step 5: Find Temp Stresses
Step 6: Find Load stress
Step 7: Find stress ratio for different axle loads
Step8: Estimate allowable repetitions
Step 9: Determine fatigue life consumed
Step 10: Check total stress due to load and temperature,
and compare with flexural strength of concrete
Design of TWT/UTWT – Estimation of Effective ‘k’ value

K value of subgrade using

plate load test, and then
modified k value for the
bituminous top

IRC:SP:76-2015
- BBD on top of bituminous layer and graphical method

IRC:SP:76-2015
 IRC:SP:76-2015 Load Stress
Temperature Stress

Negative temperature:
0.15 C/cm

4 Eh3 • Corner cracks main cause of failure

l= • Stress due to single axle 8 ton and tandem axle 16 ton. For other load axle, stress can be
12 1 − μ2 𝑘
calculated proportionately to the load.
• If size of panel is less than 1.30 m then two axles of tandem axle vehicle will not fall on the
same panel simultaneously, hence, stresses should only be considered for single axle.
• Possibility of wheel of two adjacent vehicles simultaneously palced on one panel is also
excluded.
 Damage Analysis – Rigid Pavement
IRC 58-2015
Allowable No. of Repetitions

1. 𝑆𝑅 < 0.45, 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

4.2577 3.268
2. N = 0.45≤SR≤0.55
𝑆𝑅−0.4325
𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝐹𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑥𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑒𝑠
0.9718−𝑆𝑅 Stress Ratio (SR) = ,
3. 𝐿𝑜𝑔10 N = 0.0828 SR>0.55 𝐹𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒
generally used for cumulative fatigue damage analysis
Cumulative Fatigue Damage – Miner’s Hypothesis
𝑛
σ 𝑖 should be < 1.
𝑁
𝑛𝑖 = Actual (expected) repetition
N = Allowable repetition

SR to be calculated for each axle load

Therefore, axle load spectra is required for design of rigid pavement
- Stress is calculated at critical locations of a pavement
 Design of White-topping

Design a white-topping for a city 2 lane roads, having two way CVPD of 2384 in year of completion of construction. The
existing pavement is bituminous layer with Subgrade CBR of 10%, Aggregate layer: 450 mm, bituminous layer of 150 mm.
The BBD was conducted on the existing pavement, and characteristics deflection was found to be 0.45 mm. M40 grade
concrete, modulus =30000 MPa, modulus of rupture: 4.5 MPa, Poisson ratio: 0.15. Design life= 20 years, growth rate:
7.5%. Assume contraction joint spacing of 1 m. Coefficient of thermal expansion: 10-5/C. Follow IRC:SP:76-2015 for
design

Rear Single Axle Rear Tandem Axle

Load Group Frequenc
(kN) y (%) Load Group (kN) Frequency (%)
150-170 0
130-150 0 260-300 0
110-130 2.61 220-260 1.18
90-110 22.23 180-220 1.18
70-90 7.84 140-180 4.71
<80 67.32 <140 92.93
Step 1. Find total axle repetitions and design axle repetitions in design
life of pavement
[(1 + 𝑟)𝑛 − 1]
𝑁 = 365 ∗ 𝐴 ∗ 𝐹 ∗
𝑟

Note: F=1 (it is assumed one axle will impact for all configuration, due
to short panel size in range of 1 to 1.3 m).
Step 2: Find k value on top of existing bituminous pavement, based on deflection measured using BBD. (Deflection:
0.45 mm).
k value = (1 kg/cm3 = 10 MPa/m)
Step 3: Assume trial thickness of white-topping, say 150 mm
4 Eh3
Radius of relative stiffness: l=
12 1 − μ2 𝑘
Step 4: Estimate curling tensile stress at corner. Negative temperature differential = 0.15
C/cm thickness. Length of slab: 1 m (100 cm), thickness (h= 150 mm, or 15 cm).
 Step 5: Find load stress due to 8 ton single axle and 16 ton tandem axle.

8 Ton single axle =

16 Ton tandem axle

Note: Load stress for other axle load will be calculated proportionately.
Step 6: Fatigue Damage due to single and tandem axle.
Single Axle
Allowable
Load Expected Axle Fatigue
Group % Repetitions Load Stress Stress Repetitions Damage
(kN) Frequency (n) (kg/cm2) Ratio (SR) (N) (n/N)
160 0
140 0
120 2.61
100 22.23
80 7.84
<80 67.32
Total
Fatigue
Damage
 Tandem Axle
Allowable
Load Expected Axle Fatigue
Group % Repetitions Load Stress Stress Repetitions Damage
(kN) Frequency (n) (kg/cm2) Ratio (SR) (N) (n/N)
280 0
240 1.18
200 1.18
160 4.71
<140 92.93
Total
Fatigue
Damage
 Step 7: Total flexural stress due to load and temperature
Maximum load stress:
Temperature stress:
Total stress
Check if this is less than flexural strength of concrete, and comment on design (based
on total stress and CFD).
Notes for white-topping construction.
1. Generally dowel bar of 25 mm diameter MS bars (500 mm long) at 300 mm c/c at mid depth of slab is provided only at the
construction joint.
2. 12 mm diameter deformed bars (640 mm long) at 400 mm c/c placed at mid depth of slab only at the centre of the slab at the
central longitudinal joint only (You can design the tie bar too).
3. Polypropylene fibres to be added to the concrete to reduce shrinkage cracking
4. Profile correction by DBM up to 50 mm, should be added, to ensure a uniform support, and minimum thickness of BT layer of 75-100
mm.
5. Joints are to be cut as per usual practice of concrete pavement. Joint width can be in range of 3-4 mm, sealed with appropriate
sealant.
 Limitation/Future Work of Design of TWT/UTWT

1. The load stress calculation is based on Westergaard method, which may not be applicable for thin slab.
2. Design method based on semi-mechanistic principle
3. Consideration of change in modulus of HMA with temperature is important
4. Evaluation of strength of bond/quantification of bond between PCC and HMA
5. FEM analysis needed
The Course CE742 Ends