The Resilient Modulus Test

Prof. Lynne H. Irwin, Director

Cornell Local Roads Program

Objectives
Review materials behavior principles
Overview of AASHTO T 307
repeated-load triaxial test procedure
and related issues
Brief overview of new FHWA study of
lab versus field properties of
pavement materials
Discuss how the two projects can
complement each other
1

A little quiz
How many agencies present
occasionally or routinely perform the
laboratory repeated-load triaxial test
Occasionally?
Routinely?

How many people here personally

run the test?
How long have you been doing so?
2

Materials Behavior

A couple of definitions
Stress
Stress = Load / Area
Strain
Strain =
Deformation / Original length

Stress

Stress-strain curve
Tangent

Chord

~ 10% strain in foundation geotechnics

~ 0.1% strain in pavement geotechnics

Strain
5

Types of materials responses

Load
Applied

Elastic

Viscous

Deformation

Elasto-Plastic

Load
Released

Yield
Point

Recoverable
Unrecoverable

Visco-elastic
Time

Stress

Elastic stress-strain behavior

Loading

>
>

Strain is fully recovered

Unloading

Strain
7

Stress

Linear elastic behavior

>
Strain is fully recovered

>

Strain
8

Hooke's law

z = E z
Stress

Stress is linearly
proportional to
strain
E is Young's
modulus of
elasticity
Mr is the resilient
modulus

E or Mr

Mr is often interchanged
with E

Strain

"Resilient" behavior is like

elastic behavior except there
is a tiny amount of
permanent strain remaining
after each load cycle.
Hence the term resilient
modulus, as opposed to
elastic modulus.
10

Poisson's ratio
When a material is
compressed it expands
laterally
is Poisson's ratio ( is
also used)
The strains are of
opposite sign, so a
negative is inserted to
keep a positive
number
= 0.50 for an
incompressible material
(no volume change)

x = - z

11

Stress

Nonlinear elastic behavior

Mr
Mr

>
>

Strain is fully recovered

Mr is a function of stress level

Strain
12

The triaxial test cell

Encloses the test specimen
Permits loading the specimen
Provides for measurement of
specimen response

13

14

Key elements of the triaxial cell

Jacketed cylindrical test specimen with
top/bottom end caps (platens)
Cell wall and support rods
Ability to apply and measure the cell
pressure
Ability to apply and measure the axial load
Ability to measure the specimen response
to load (deformation - axially and radially)
Ability to saturate specimen and measure
internal pressure
15

Principal stresses
1

Y
X

3
Z

The Resilient Modulus Test

AASHTO T 307

17

AASHTO T 307 materials types

Type 1 (coarse-grained)
Unbound bases, subbases and subgrades
<70% passing #10 sieve
<20% passing #200 sieve
PI < 10

Type 2 (fine-grained)
Unbound bases, subbases and subgrades
Do not meet the Type 1 criteria
18

Repeated cyclic loading

A sequence of pressures are used
Base/subbase materials
3-6-9; 5-10-15; 10-20-30 psi
Sequence varies with cell pressure

Subgrade materials
2-4-6-8-10 psi
Same sequence for all cell pressures

0.1 second pulse duration, 0.9 to 3.0

sec rest period
19

Test procedure
500 to 1000 cycles conditioning at
start of test (first sequence)
100 cycles at each subsequent stress
level
Measure and record specimen
response for the last four cycles of
each sequence
Terminate test if >5% permanent
strain occurs
20

Permanent
Deformation
(Recoverable Deformation)

21

Resilient modulus
Cyclic stress =
Repeated Load / Specimen Area
Recoverable strain =
Total Vertical Deformation / initial
Gage Length

22

Resilient modulus
Cyclic stress
Mr =
Recoverabl e strain

23

Issues in T 307
Double plunger compaction method
Initial confining stress ratio effect
Constitutive models
Pulse duration too fast
Procedure needs a good edit

24

Double plunger method

(Annex 3)

25

Double plunger method

26

Density gradient (Annex 5)

27

Double plunger method

28

Double plunger method

29

Kneading compactor method

(Annex 4)

30

Initial confining stress ratio effect

Confining stress ratio =
kc = 1 / 3

Stress condition before cyclic loading

In AASHTO T 307
kc = 1.05 to 1.1
Under a pavement
0.2 < kc < 2.0
Research has shown
that Mr (kc)-0.7

31

Stress-dependent materials
For many years we have believed
E = k1 Stress k2
which is a log-log model
[ Log E = log k1 + k2 Log Stress ]
Log E
Log k1
k2
Log Stress
32

Typical stress parameters

Bulk Stress : = 1 + 2 + 3 = 1 + 23
Confining Stress : = 3

Deviator Stress : d = 1 3
Octahedral Shear Stress :
1
oct =
(1 2 )2 + ( 2 3 )2 + (3 1 )2
3
33

Problem
Pavement under load is in bending,
thus stresses can be positive
(compression) or negative (tension)
Bulk stress is often negative at
bottom of upper layers (surface and
base courses)

34

Tensile zones in
pavement layers

Surface
Base

Tensile zones

Subgrade
35

Solution
Use a semi-log model
E = k1 exp(k2 * Stress)
[ Log E = log k1 + k2 * Stress]
Log E
Log k1
k2
Stress
36

Modulus, MPa

Comparison of models
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
-50

50

150

250

350

Bulk Stress, kPa

Log-log Model

Semi-log Model

Test Data

37

Comparison of models
Results of regression with the data:
E = 4181

0.779

(log - log model, r 2 = 0.96)

E = 214.8 exp (-0.00567 )
(semi - log model, r 2 = 0.95)
38

Load pulse duration

0.1 second pulse originally selected for
asphalt surface layer testing
Flexural fatigue test
Simulates vehicle moving about 30 mph

Stress and strain from moving wheel is

more broadly distributed at the depth of
base/subbase and subgrade
0.2 sec (base course) to 0.25 sec
(subgrade) pulse duration would be more
realistic
39

Relationships Between
Laboratory-Measured and
Field-Derived Properties of
Pavement Layers
DTFH61-08-R-00032
40

Research teams
Michigan State University
Dr. Karim Chatti
Dr. M. Emin Kutay, P.E.
Asphalt concrete characterization

Cornell University
Dr. Lynne H. Irwin, P.E.
Dr. David P. Orr, P.E.
Unbound materials characterization
41

Objectives
Develop a fundamental understanding of
the factors underlying observed
differences between laboratory-measured
and field-derived properties of pavement
layers
Develop improved methods and/or
relationships that will allow both to be
used interchangeably for design and
performing analyses
42

Goal
This project will be considered
successful if it yields either
relationships enabling the
interchangeable use of laboratoryresilient modulus test data and
backcalculated values, or a clear
explanation of why it was not
possible to derive such relationships
43

Outputs
The expected outputs from this
research may take one of two
posssible forms. (1) Develop
meaningful relationships between
laboratory-measured and fieldderived properties of pavement
materials, based upon the
fundamental materials properties
that are obtaned from each
approach. Or ...
44

Outputs
(2) If meaningful relationships
cannot be developed, conduct further
investigation as needed to explain
reasons underlying the discrepancies
between laboratory and field moduli,
and provide a clear explanation of
the reasons that relationships could
not be derived
45