What Is Flexible Pavement?
Flexible pavement has very low flexural strength and is flexible in its structural action under vehicle loads. In this pavement, the wheel load stresses are transferred from grain to grain to the lower layers. The wheel load is distributed over a wider area, and the stress is also decreased with the depth. Flexible pavements are constructed in many layers using bituminous materials like asphalt. The top layer is supposed to sustain maximum compressive stress whereas the lower layers will experience a lesser magnitude of stress.
What Is Rigid Pavement?
Rigid pavements have a great amount of flexural strength or flexural rigidity. In this pavement, the load is distributed by the slab action, and the pavement acts as an elastic plate. Rigid pavements are constructed by using Portland cement concrete (PCC). The pavement materials are placed either directly on the prepared sub-grade or on a single layer of the granular or stabilized surface.
Click Here To See the Difference Between Pre-Tensioning and Post-Tensioning Concrete
