Difference between Flexible Pavement and Rigid Pavement

What are the Difference between Flexible Pavement and Rigid Pavement?

Almost all of students’ gets confused when asked about the questions related to the differences between flexible pavement and rigid pavement. If you want to know about their differences, this article explains it in detail.

Before going into the list of differences between flexible pavement and rigid pavement, we are going to discuss what is flexible pavement and rigid pavement and what differentiates them from each other.

Flexible Pavement:

This pavement is constructed from bitumen’s or asphalt Flexible roads consist of four layers and require proper maintenance or it will crumble due to heavy load traffic. All type of roads are flexible roads except concrete roads a flexible pavement can be defined as a pavement layer include of a combination of aggregates and bitumen, it is heated and blended precisely and then put and compacted on a bed of granular layer. It transfers the load to sub grade through combination of layers. subgrade work as a foundation for the road.

Flexible pavement is constructed of a bituminous wearing course and essential base and subbase. In this pavement the bituminous material is more frequently asphalt whose viscous nature permits crucial plastic distortion. Almost all asphalt surfaces are constructed on a gravel base, while some ‘full depth’ asphalt surfaces are constructed directly on the subgrade. It is depending on temperature, there are three different classification of asphalt that is hot mix asphalt (HMA), warm mix asphalt (WMA), or cold mix asphalt (CMA). Flexible Pavement is so named as the pavement surface reflects the overall declination of all upcoming layers because of the traffic load acting on it. The flexible pavement design is based on the load dispersing specific of a layered system.

The four layers of flexible pavement is given below:

• Sub Grade:
• Sub Base:
• Base course
• Surface course

Rigid Pavement:

Rigid pavement is constructed from reinforced concrete Rigid roads consist of three layers they are non-flexible roads concrete roads are the best example of the rigid roads. a rigid pavement can be defined as a pavement layer include of a combination of aggregates and cement, it is blended precisely and then put and compacted on a bed of granular layer in rigid road there is no need of sub base. There are mainly three layer in rigid road.

It is mostly used to build airports and highways, like those in the dual carriage way or interstate highway system. As well as, they typically provide as heavy duty industrial floor slabs, port and dock plant pavements, and heavy traffic park or concluding pavements. Such as flexible pavements, rigid pavements are designed as all weather, long-lasting structures to provide advance day high speed vehicle. contributing high quality surfaces for ride for the purpose of safe driving, they duty as structural layers to transmit automobile wheel loads in this way that the develop stresses transfer to the subgrade are of allowable capacity.

The three layers of rigid road is given below:

• Sub grade
• Base course
• Surface course

Difference between Flexible Pavement and Rigid Pavement:

The difference between flexible pavement and rigid pavement is given below in chart:

S.No	Flexible Pavement	Rigid Pavement
1	The initial cost of flexible pavement is low	The initial cost of Rigid pavement is high.
2	The span of flexible pavement is short.	The span of Rigid pavement is long.
3	The thickness of this pavement is more	The thickness of this pavement is less
4	Joints are required in flexible pavements	Joints are required in Rigid pavements
5	The durability of flexible pavement is less	The durability of Rigid pavement is more
6	In flexible pavement good subgrade should be constructed	In Rigid pavement good subgrade is not required.
7	Repairing work of this pavement is easy	Repairing work of this pavement is not easy
8	Norma skill and less supervision are required in flexible pavement	High skill and more supervision are required in Rigid pavement
9	In flexible pavement It is simple to put locate or repair below ground pipes.	In Rigid pavement It is not simple to put locate or repair below ground pipes.
10	It is one of the plus point of this pavement that after construction of flexible pavement it Can be opened to vehicles shortly.	After the construction of Rigid pavement it Can’t be opened to vehicles shortly.
11	It is More strong to traffic load	It is not too strong to traffic load
12	Flexible pavement establish crinkle	Rigid pavement establish crinkle
13	Flexible pavement adjust according to distortion of subgrade without fracture or cracks	Rigid pavement do not adjust according to distortion of subgrade without fracture or cracks
14	This pavement have more friction or adhesion resistance	This pavement do not have more friction or adhesion resistance
15	It is acceptable for all types of traffic	It is not acceptable for all types of traffic
16	The color of flexible pavement is black because of black color it provide poor visibility at night	Rigid pavement provide good visibility at night
17	This pavement do not typically cause shine due to reflect sun light	This pavement typically cause shine due to reflect sun light
18	Stage development is workable	Stage development is not workable
19	The Maintenance cost of flexible pavement is very high	The Maintenance cost of Rigid pavement is very low
20	Flexible pavement adjust itself to conventional forces by suffer elastic distortion	Rigid pavement do not adjust itself to conventional forces by suffer elastic distortion
21	The life span of flexible pavement is 15 years	The life span of Rigid pavement is 30 years
22	Flexible pavements load distribution is depend on layered system	Rigid pavement load distribution is depend on slab system
23	Flexible pavement is built in number of layers	Rest in slabs with steel reinforcement
24	It transfer vertical and compressive stresses to the lower layers	Tensile stress and temperature increases
25	Flexible pavement have Low flexural strength	Associated with rigidity or flexural strength or slab action so the load is distributed over a wide area of subgrade soil

Conclusion:

The main objective of this article “Differences between flexible pavement and Rigid Pavement” is that the flexible pavement is constructed from Asphalt while the Rigid pavement is constructed from Reinforced Concrete or RCC.

So friends I have written all the difference between flexible pavement and rigid pavement as much as I know. If this article is helpful do share it with your friends and leave a comment

Thanks for reading the article.

You may also read:

• Difference between Normal Concrete and High Strength Concrete
• Types of Road and their Uses
• Types of pavements