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Percorrer por autor "Hajri, Mohamed Amir"

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  • Unpaved low-volume roads conceptual framework functional evaluations and comparative design approaches
    Publication . Hajri, Mohamed Amir; Minhoto, Manuel; Paula, António Miguel; Khezami, Issam Eddine
    The road network plays a crucial role in the economic, social, and cultural development of a country. It connects rural and urban areas and facilitates the transportation of people and goods across the territory. Unpaved roads, often originating from dirt paths or trails, are characterized by relatively low construction costs and a high tolerance for deformation. Due to their importance, it is essential to design and study them properly to meet users' needs while ensuring safe and comfortable travel conditions. This work presents a comparative analysis of three design methods used to improve the conditions of low-traffic unpaved roads. The first method comes from the ERA manual (2011), which uses the CBR and traffic variables to define the design. The second method is from Austroads (2009), which also considers these two variables. Finally, the FCE manual (Brito, 2011) relies solely on soil classification and the CBR value to determine the thickness of the road's base layer. The study focuses on a road located in the Montesinho Natural Park, which provides access between two dams supplying the Bragança district. Thanks to laboratory and field tests conducted by Cabette (2018) and Freitas (2019), several physical and mechanical characteristics of the road structure were assessed, allowing the necessary thickness of the base layer to be determined based on the applied conditions. The base layer thicknesses determined by the three methods are similar, ranging from 10 to 15 cm. Through a sensitivity analysis of the input variables for the different methodologies, it was found that for the ERA manual (2011), the most sensitive variable is traffic, while for the Austroads (2009) method, the most decisive factor is the CBR value, and for the FCE manual (Brito, 2011), the most sensitive variables are the foundation material's strength and the CBR value.
    2025Dissertação de mestrado Acesso aberto Ver mais