Backcalculation of pavements incorporating Grouted Macadam technology

Applying cement grout with a high compressive strength to a porous layer made of asphalt concrete results in a pavement with the properties of an intermediate type that combines the characteristics of both flexible and rigid pavements. This solution is known as Grouted Macadam (GM). Despite a wide range of test results on the GM pavements presented in the literature, there are very few advanced modelling solutions formulated in the scope of bearing capacity measured in situ be means of a Falling Weight Deflectometer. This paper turns out that the seemingly small frequency of loading (≈20 Hz) generated during pavement deflection measurements using a Falling Weight Deflectometer-like device, has a significant impact on the backcalculation results of GM pavements. The study shows that, introducing frequency normalisation of both the pavement loading and vertical displacements to the backcalculation, can limit the statistical scatter of backcalculation results by close to a half in comparison with the classical backcalculation procedure.