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3.1 General
The flexible pavements are built with a number of layers. In the design process, it
is to be ensured that under the application of load none of the layers is
overstressed. This means that at any instance no section of the pavement
structure is subjected to excessive deformation to form a localized depression or
settlement.
In the design of flexible pavements, it has yet not been possible to have a
rational design method wherein design process and the service behaviour of the
pavement can be expressed or predicted theoretically by mathematical laws.
One of the methods of pavement design is the California bearing ratio method,
which is an empirical method.

3.2 California Bearing Ratio

In 1928 California division of highways in USA developed CBR method for the
pavement design. The majority of curves developed later are based on the
original curves developed by O.J.Porter. At the beginning of the Second World
War the corps engineer of USA made a survey of the existing method of
pavement design and adopted CBR method for designing military airport
pavements. One of the chief advantages of CBR method is simplicity of test
procedure. Most of the road pavements are designed in CBR method depends
on the CBR value of subgrade soil determined by conducting CBR test in the
laboratory on the subgrade soil, disturbed or remoulded depending whether an
existing subgrade is utilized for the pavement without improvement or a new
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subgrade is to be constructed with proper control over it’s properties, especially

compaction characteristics.
During investigation it found that that the failure of flexile pavement was
essentially caused due to the following reasons:
1. Lateral displacement of the subgrade material as a result of subgrade
absorbing water.
2. Differential settlement of the material underneath the pavement.
3. Excessive deflection of the material under the pavement.
Based on these conclusions, the CBR test, which is an ad hock penetration test,
was devised in order to predict the behavior of the pavement material including
the subgrade. CBR value is defined as the ratio of load required to cause a
specified penetration say 2.5mm or 5mm of a standard plunger into the sample to
the load required to produce the same penetration of same plunger into standard
stone aggregate sample, expressed as a percentage. CBR value varies from 0 to
100%. More CBR indicates a stronger soil. If density is less, CBR is less. The
CBR is expressed as percentage of penetration resistance of a given pavement
material to that of a standard value of penetration resistance obtained for a
crusher stone aggregate available in California.

3.3 Design of Pavement Using the CBR Method

In order to design a pavement in CBR method, first the soaked CBR value of soil
sub-grade is evaluated. Then appropriate design curve is chosen by taking
design wheel load or by taking anticipated traffic into consideration. Thus the
total thickness of flexible pavement to cover the subgrade of known CBR value is
obtained. Incase there is a material superior than the soil sub-grade such that it
may be used as sub-base course, then the thickness of construction over this
material could be obtained from design chart knowing the CBR value of the sub-
base. Thickness of the sub-base course is the total thickness minus the
thickness over the sub-base.

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IRC Recommendations
Some of the important points recommended by IRC for the CBR method of
design (IRC: 37-1970) are given below:
1. The CBR test should be performed on remoulded soils in laboratory. In-
situ tests are recommended for design purposes. The specimen should be
2. Prepared by static compaction whenever possible otherwise by dynamic
compaction.
3. For the design of new roads the sub-grade soil sample should be
compacted at OMC to proctor density whenever suitable compaction
equipment is available to achieve this density in the field, otherwise the
soil is compacted to the dry density expected to be achieved in the field.
4. In new constructions the CBR test samples may be soaked in water for
four days period before testing. However in areas with arid climate or
when the annual rainfall is less than 50cm and the water table is to affect
the subgrade adversely and when thick impermeable bituminous surfacing
is provided, it is not necessary to soak the soil sample before carrying out
the CBR test.
5. At least three samples should be tested on each soil sample at same
density and moisture content. If the maximum variation in the CBR values
of three samples exceeds the specified limits, the design CBR should be
the average of at least six samples.
6. The top 50cm of sub-grade should be compacted at least up to 95 to
100% of proctor density.
7. An estimate of road traffic to be carried out by the road pavements at the
end of expected life should be made keeping in view the existing traffic
and growth rate of traffic. Pavements of major roads should be designed
for a period of ten years.

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8. The traffic for the design is considered in units of heavy vehicles per day
in both directions and is divided into seven categories. The suitable design
curve should be chosen from the table given in design chart after
estimating the design traffic.
When sub-base course materials contain substantial portion of aggregate of size
above 20mm, the CBR value of these materials would not be valid for the design
of subsequent layers above them. Thin layers of wearing course such as surface
dressing or open graded premixed carpet up to 2.5cm thickness should not be
counted towards the total thickness as they do not increase the structural
capacity as the pavement.

3.4 Factors affecting CBR

The principle soil factors affecting the CBR are soil texture, moisture, and
density. The testing procedure employed depends primarily upon the type of
material being tested. Granular soils are not greatly affected by swelling during
the soaking period, and therefore the surcharge weights are not to significant
during this part of test. In contrast, claylike soils, which are greatly affected by
swelling pressures, yield CBR values depending upon the weight of the
surcharges used during the soaking period. Surcharge weights are extremely
important during the penetration portion of the test for granular materials but not
too significant for the fine grained soils.

3.5 Limitation of CBR Method of Design of Pavements

The CBR method of design of the flexible pavement suffer from a serious
disadvantage that the CBR method of pavement design gives the total thickness
requirement of the pavement above a subgrade and this thickness value would
remain the same irrespective of the quality of materials used in the component

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layers. Thus the combination of different materials should be judiciously chosen

to effect durability and economy of the pavement.

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