One of the most common applications of geosynthetics is in highways and railways; this type of material has been widely used in pavement structures over the past 30 years. They can be applied for: separation, stiffening, drainage, reinforcement, filtration, barrier etc. As reinforcement, these materials can be used to increase the number of loading cycles or reduce the thicknesses of asphalt layer, base or subbase, increase the stiffness of the subgrade, etc. Many experimental and numerical studies have been conducted aiming at evaluating the performance of geosynthetics as reinforcement of pavements. This study compares predictions from numerical analysis of geosynthetic reinforced asphalt pavements with results from large scale tests in the laboratory. Four types of geosynthetics were used in the investigation: a PET geogrid and geocomposite, and two PVA geocomposites. The numerical simulation was carried out using finite element software. The numerical analyses allowed to extend the results and conclusions obtained by the experimental study. The results obtained showed that the performance of geosynthetics as reinforcement increased the service life, ending the crack propagation in a low cycle fatigue based in fracture mechanics approach.
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