Evaluation of the Temporal Moisture Variations in Flexible Pavements with Thin Seals Under Melbourne Climate

It has been identified that the accurate prediction of temporal moisture variation in pavements throughout the service life under prevailing climatic conditions could enhance the current pavement design in Australia to develop a more economical and safer pavement design. Thus, this paper presents a practical approach to predict temporal moisture variations in terms of degree of saturation (DOS) at different depths of pavement layers in the unbound pavement with thin sprayed seals by incorporating climatic factors. The numerical modelling of moisture, vapour and heat flow through unsaturated media was employed to obtain the DOS variation at each depth in pavement layers. A one-dimensional finite element model was developed to simulate the moisture movements in a typical pavement under North Melbourne climate using Hydrus 1D, an open-source software package. The model developed was then employed to evaluate the DOS variation in each layer. Furthermore, this paper discusses how the model developed can be utilized to advance the current pavement design by incorporating temporal moisture variations.