Due to technological innovations new materials are introduced to the construction industry from time to time and need to be installed properly by contractors. Based on their past experience, the contractors have some ideas on how to carry out the operation. However, those ideas are just a good starting point. In order to attain an efficient and productive operation, many issues need to be considered and clarified. To design a new construction operation, the designer needs to completely understand the processes, consider all relevant issues, and review all governing criteria. Achieving practical and productive operations for new technologies requires careful and thorough planning. Simulation modeling can be a very effective technique to design construction operations for new technologies. Simulation modeling allows experimenting with many of the factors involved in the operations prior to initial construction. Early construction sequencing can allow testing of many alternatives without expensive installations. Geosynthetics are currently being incorporated in flexible pavement systems to improve their performance. However, geosynthetics must be used in the correct application and installed properly in order to produce good results. One of the newly developed geosynthetics is geocomposite membrane that thought to provide strain energy absorption and a moisture barrier. This research discusses the application of discrete-event simulation (DES) to design and analyze the installation of geocomposite membranes in flexible pavements. Data collected from two test sections at the Virginia Smart Road in Blacksburg, Virginia was used for modeling and analysis. STROBOSCOPE, a programming language designed for modeling complex operations, was used as the simulation engine. The process used in the development of simulation models is discussed. A number of installation alternatives were studied and simulated to examine their practicality and to investigate their productivity, resource utilization, and unit cost. / Master of Science

This study quantifies the benefits of two interlayer systems (steel reinforcing netting and a newly-designed geocomposite membrane) in different pavement applications. Steel reinforcing netting and geocomposite membrane have been installed at the Virginia Smart Road in four different sections. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys and time domain reflectometer (TDR) validated the effectiveness of the geocomposite membrane in preventing water from infiltrating to the underneath layers. In pavement rehabilitation applications, based on finite element (FE) analysis, it was found that the geocomposite membrane would create a protective compressive field around the crack tip and separate the criticality of the stress field in the cracked area from the bottom of the overlay. However, if the crack passes through the interlayer, a faster propagation rate than in a typical pavement is expected. These results emphasize the importance of proper field installation. As to steel reinforcing netting, this study found that this interlayer system would be effective in new pavement systems in both the crack initiation and propagation phases when the cracks start at the bottom of the HMA layers. For the considered pavement structures, steel reinforcing netting was found effective to delay the initiation of the cracks. This delay depends on the stiffness of the hot-mix asphalt (HMA) layers, the reinforcing pattern, and the direction of the strain at the bottom of the HMA layers. After initiation of the crack, steel reinforcement contribute by delaying the rate of crack propagation to the pavement surface. In pavement rehabilitations, however, the crack is already well established in the existing pavement, and steel reinforcement contribution is expected from the time of installation. In this case, steel reinforcement will delay the initiation of the crack in the overlay, and reduce the rate of crack propagation afterwards. Two models, to predict the overlay service life against reflective cracking from existing HMA layers, were developed. / Ph. D.