The use of insulating layers has become one of the strategies to mitigate and/or prevent the problem of frost heave in winter and the weakening due to thaw in spring. Surface heave changes the profile of the road and can adversely affect the ride quality of the road, especially if the heave is differential and irregular. Weakening spring thaw may result in the imposition of a Spring Load Restriction (SLR) on lightly trafficked roads. The resulting poor subgrade support during the thawing season results in higher deflections that cause fatigue buildup in the pavement and lead to different types of cracks and deterioration, including crocodile cracks. If the insulating layer provides adequate bearing capacity for the coating and does not create an unfavorable humidity regime in the system, its use will lead to a reduction in the depth of gel penetration into the coating structure. This can enable design engineers to moderate the thickness of base/underlayment layers and thereby limit the depletion of natural aggregate resources and move towards more economical and sustainable design strategies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the Original Essay Traditionally, polystyrene is used as an insulation material. In recent years, like other sectors of society, there has been an increasing trend in the pavement community to use more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices and materials. Therefore, road agencies in cold regions are advised to use waste and recycled materials as an economical insulation layer through a continuous process of trial and error. As there are some difficulties associated with predicting reliable thermal patterns in pavement structures, as well as concerns regarding the long-term structural performance of these materials, field trials have been initiated. Bottom ash, waste from the incineration of coal in power plants, has recently been presented as an option for the construction of road embankments. The amount of insulation required will depend on the type of pavement structure, the thermal properties of the different pavement layers and the climate. Accordingly, the change in the thermal regime in the pavement structure caused by the insulating materials should be studied using appropriate modeling software to provide an accurate and reliable estimate of the required thickness of the insulating material in order to avoid the problems mentioned above. In the early 1990s, thermal modeling of insulated and non-insulated roads was carried out by the Alaska Department of Transportation (AK DOT) using an MS-DOS computer program, MUT1D (Multilayer User- Friendly Thermal Model in 1 Dimension). Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article now from our expert writers.Get a personalized essay The software applied one-dimensional implicit finite difference techniques to estimate the thermal regime of a multi-layer model. Although the MUT1D model produces results with acceptable accuracy, it is limited to producing the depth of phase change along a single analysis line. The limitation of previous software leads the designer to use TEMP/W (which is one of the modules of the Geostudio 2012 software, GeoSlope International, Calgary, Alberta). This two-dimensional (2D) finite element program provides heat flow analysis for a cross section..