8. Pavement sizing

8.1 Principles

The design of new pavements in France is based on standard NF P 98-086, which incorporates the principles of the Guide Technique de Conception et de Dimensionnement des Structures de Chaussées. Predimensioning is based on the intended service life, traffic class and bearing capacity of the subgrade.

In the case of a granular sub-base course, "untreated gravel" or GNT is classified into three categories according to traffic class, aggregate cleanliness, hardness, crushing index and fines content.

Each category is assigned a Young's modulus ranging from 200 to 600 MPa. In the absence of specific information, Poisson's ratio is generally taken to be 0.35.

The purpose of a pavement base is to distribute...