Pavement Design in Seasonal Frost Conditions

The Pavement Design in Seasonal Frost Conditions online PDH course is a part of the Civil Engineering category of courses. This course will give design and construction professionals an introduction to special design methods to employ when designing pavements for roads, parking and open storage areas where climatic conditions include seasonal frost.

This course presents criteria and procedures for the design and construction of pavements placed on subgrade or base course materials subject to seasonal frost action. The most prevalent modes of distress in pavements and their causes are discussed. The detrimental effects of frost action in subsurface materials are manifested by nonuniform heave of pavements during the winter and by loss of strength of affected soils during the ensuing thaw period. This is accompanied by a corresponding increase in damage accumulation and a more rapid rate of pavement deterioration during the period of weakening; other related detrimental effects of frost and low temperatures are possible loss of compaction, development of permanent roughness, restriction of drainage by the frozen strata, and cracking and deterioration of the pavement surface.  Hazardous operating conditions, excessive maintenance, or pavement destruction may result.

This course is intended for civil and geotechnical engineers and other design and construction professionals wanting to learn how to design rigid and flexible pavements where seasonal frost conditions exist.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course, you will:

• Learn frost, soil and pavement terminology applicable to design for seasonal frost conditions;
• Learn about bound bases and how they are employed in frost conditions;
• Learn the definitions of frost-susceptible soils;
• Learn how the design freezing index is determined and applied in design for seasonal frost;
• Learn how to design to accommodate varved clays;
• Learn the alternative methods of thickness design;
• Learn how to determine and apply the air freezing index;
• Learn about the reduced subgrade strength design method.