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University of Southern Queensland
Faculty of Health, Engineering & Sciences
Course Number: CIV3703 Course Name: Transport Engineering
Students: On-campus - Yes
Online - Yes
This Assessment ca
ies 200 of the 1000 marks
total for this course.
Assistant Examiner:
Dr Hannah Seligmann
Examiner: Dr Soma Somasundaraswaran
Moderator: Dr Jim Shiau
Assignment: Assignment 2
Date Due:
11th October 2021 at
11:55 pm
Penalty for Late Submission:
A reduction by 5% of the maximum Mark applicable
for the Assignment, for each University Business Day
or part Business Day that the Assignment is late up
to a maximum of 10 business days at which point a
total mark of 0 will be assigned for the assignment.
Special Instructions:
Assignments are to be submitted electronically, using the link provided on Study Desk.
Marked assignments will be returned via the Study Desk grades and feedback system.
Please use *.doc format only to submit your assignment report.
It is unacceptable for students to share solutions for assessable work on the Study Desk site, or
in any other manner. It is also unacceptable to seek the assistance of an external
party. Violations of this principle are regarded as Academic Misconduct and will be dealt with
under the USQ Academic Regulations. All student submission will be checked using the turn it in
plagiarism software prior to submission
• You should be familiar with the following USQ policies: Academic Integrity Policy, Assessment
Procedure, Assessment of Compassionate and Compelling Circumstances Procedure,
and Students with a Disability Policy and Procedure.
Any non USQ copyright material used herein is reproduced under the provision of Section XXXXXXXXXXb) of the Copyright Amendment Act 1980
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CIV3703 – Transport Engineering
Assignment XXXXXXXXXX
Description Marks out of Weighting (%) Due date
Assignment 2 200 marks 20% 11 Oct 2021
Rationale:
This assignment is designed to test your achievement of the learning objectives of Modules 7, 8, 9, and
10.
Special instructions:
1. Assignment 2 must be submitted by the due date via the StudyDesk (Word file only, not
scanned or photographed).
2. Your assignment file must be identifiable by a file name that contains your first name and
surname.
e.g. CIV2702_Assignment_1_John_Citizen.docx or
CIV2702_Assignment_1_John_Citizen.doc
3. Information provided is generally adequate. If any assumptions are required, those should be
clearly stated. The answers should be well set out and clearly show all the tables, charts,
calculations and assumptions used. Therefore, no Excel files or their copies will be accepted
as a part of your calculations.
4. While a formal report is not necessary, you should type and present your working steps and
answers in a logical order. Place your working in each question, do not place it in the
Appendix.
5. Students should use the Discussion Forum of the StudyDesk to access/obtain clarifications,
discussions and additional technical information. However, students must not use the forum as
a means to reveal their work to others.
6. No email should be sent to the lecturer(s) unless it is of personal nature.
Penalty for late submission of Assignment 1
Please note that the onus is on students to organise their affairs so that they can achieve the
educational objectives of the course and submit assignments for assessment no later than the due date.
The onus is also on the student to provide, if requested, proof of date of despatch. If students submit
assignments after the due date without legitimate and extenuating circumstances (e.g. illness
substantiated by a medical certificate) then a penalty of 5% of the assigned mark may apply for each
working day late up to a maximum of ten working days at which time a mark of zero will be recorded
for that assignment.
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Marking Scheme:
Question 1 – (30 marks)
Calculate the cumulative design traffic for rigid and flexible pavements for the following two cases
(assuming below capacity flow):
Case A (15 marks) Case B (15 marks)
Road U
an arterial
Principal road between major
egions
AADT (data year) 12, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX)
Year of opening XXXXXXXXXX
HV % 10 20
Annual traffic growth
ate %
4 3
Annual HV growth rate
%
2 1.5
NHVAG XXXXXXXXXX
ESA/HVAG XXXXXXXXXX
Design period 20 years 15 years
Directional Factor 50:50 60:40
Lane distribution
Factor
80% of HV using outer lane 90% of HV using outer lane
Note: For design purposes, calculate the maximum cumulative design traffic for one lane (for each case).
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Question 2 – (50 marks)
A granular pavement with bituminous seal is to be designed for a collector road in u
an area. NDT is
5.0 million HVAG. The ratio of ESA/HVAG = 0.8.
DCP testing at the site produced an average penetration of 60 mm
low for the nearly saturated
subgrade.
The design CBR can be obtained from the following five equations (find the average value which should
e rounded down to the nearest whole number and confirm the value with that from the chart from
Austroads.
Table 1 Co
elations between DCPI and CBR
Figure 1 Variation of CBR with DCPI
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The following materials are available for your use and are as placed.
Pavement material Cost
Crushed rock, soaked CBR = 90% $60.00/ m3
Coarse river sand, soaked CBR = 30% $45.00/ m3
Clayey gravelly sand, soaked CBR = 15% $20.00/ m3
Silty sand, soaked CBR = 7 % $15.00/ m3
The minimum as-compacted thickness of any layer is 100 mm.
1. Find the appropriate design CBR value based on the given information.
(5 marks)
2. Design eight pavement design alternatives. Note: You do not need to design either seal or other
oad elements such as slopes, drainage, etc.
(8 x 5 marks)
3. Discuss your design alternatives and recommend a final pavement configuration (with
properly-sketched cross-sectional diagram) for adoption. Refer to RMS standard drawings
for typical pavement profile:
http:
www.rms.nsw.gov.au
usiness-industry/partners-suppliers/document-types/standard-
drawings/pavement.html
It is essential to provide justification as to why you have selected a particular design for
construction. While cost is an important issue, include some discussions on the potential long-
term performance of the selected pavement as compared with other pavements. For example,
some materials may be more sensitive to moisture fluctuations.
(5 marks)
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Question 3 – (30 marks)
For this question, your Turnitin report will be scrutinised for any similarities with published literatures.
Please make sure that you use your own wording and not copy and paste from existing literatures.
a) Describe various types of bitumen and their application in seals and asphalt work. Explain the use
of polymers in bitumen, including types, characteristics and functions.
(10 marks)
) Explain with sketches, the basis of Austroads mechanistic pavement thickness design method (i.e.
what theories and assumptions are these methods based on). What is the major difference between
the Austroads mechanistic-empirical (CIRCLY) design method and other mechanistic-empirical
design methods?
(10 marks)
c) List the material parameters used in the cu
ent Austroads mechanistic-empirical design methods
for flexible pavement design, and outline how these parameters are determined in the laboratory
(discuss the relevant test methods) for various pavement materials (including asphalt, stabilised and
unbound materials).
(10 marks)
Note: Minimum answer is 3 pages and maximum is 5 pages. You must use at least 3 good references
other than the Study book. List any sources of information as your references.
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QUESTION XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
An asphalt stiffness modulus of 4000 MPa was obtained in the laboratory.
In the field, the following are observed:
• In-service Air Voids = 6%
• WMAPT = 30C
• Design speed = 60 kph
• Subgrade CBR = 5%.
a. Find the Austroads co
ection factors for the asphalt and obtain the design asphalt modulus. What
design modulus could be assumed if the asphalt is used as a surfacing for a car park?
(5 marks)
. Using a chart from Austroads Guide for Lightly-trafficked Pavements, obtain the approximate
asphalt modulus based on the information above. Compared with (a), what would be the laboratory
modulus assumed in the chart?
(5 marks)
c. Considering the calculated design asphalt moduli from (a) and (b), which may be rounded up or
down slightly to suit the Austroads design charts, design 2 alternative flexible pavements (one with
thin (40 mm) asphalt and the other with thick asphalt) for lightly-trafficked road for a design traffic
loading of 100,000 ESA. Comment on the observed difference.
(15 marks)
d. Using CIRCLY 7.0 computer program (Evaluation Version), design a flexible pavement with
40mm asphalt surfacing. Assume the following inputs for CIRCLY:
Traffic Load Distribution: Example traffic load distribution (from Austroads Guide Appendix G)
Project Reliability = 50%
Asphalt 14 mm, WMAPT 28ï‚°C, 60 kph
Base: Unbound granular, Austroads 2004 sublayering, High standard quality.
Subgrade CBR = 5% (Anisotropic)
Compare your design with that obtained from (c) and comment on the difference. What type of granular
material is inherently assumed in Fig. 12.2?
(15 marks)
Note:
Refer to guide to solving Question 4 Assignment 2 located in Appendix A
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Question 5 – (50 Marks)
The following data was obtained from a cored asphalt specimen taken from a site that had experienced
some issues. The available laboratory record indicated that the asphalt aggregate could be classified as
well-graded with a maximum size of 14 mm.
Mass of asphalt specimen in air = 1270 g
Mass of asphalt specimen in water = 720 g
Bulk density of coarse aggregate = 2.68 t/m3
Bulk density of fine aggregate = 2.74 t/m3
Bulk density of filler = 3.10 t/m3
Density of binder = 1.02 t/m3
% coarse aggregate of total mass = 60 %
% filler of total mass = 10%
Binder content by mass in asphalt mix (total, not effective) = 6.4 %
Maximum density of asphalt mix (AS XXXXXXXXXX) = 2.51 t/m3
The typical range of effective binder content (% by volume) for well-graded asphalt mixes is 10% to
12%. The