01515114

Component

Research reported in recent years has documented the importance of the Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) as a key input to characterize concrete behavior in mechanistic-empirical pavement design. This study aimed to define how sensitive a factor the CTE is for pavement design using the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Pavement ME Design® software and to examine the level of precision that is required by the current CTE test method. An evaluation of the impact of CTE on rigid pavement design was conducted using Level 1 input data from actual field projects, specifically to observe its effect on the predicted concrete thickness necessary to meet distress limits. The study was conducted by adjusting the CTE values to evaluate their impact on predicted distresses, predicted design life, and the required pavement thickness needed to achieve the desired design life. The change in predicted service life based on varying the CTE over the expected testing error of the test method, along with the associated costs, was investigated. A difference in performance was predicted when using Level 1 and Level 2 materials inputs. The results from this study provide guidance on the level of precision required for the CTE test method that is acceptable based on its impact on the required pavement thickness. A precision of ±00.3 microstrains/°F for CTE was found to be reasonable based on the minimal impact (0.5 inch) to the optimized pavement thicknesses to be built. However, examination of the difference in predicted service life further demonstrated the sensitivity of the CTE input.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFN20 Properties of Concrete.

01503729

14-2220

English

18p

2014

Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Coefficients; Concrete pavements; Mechanistic-empirical pavement design; Pavement design; Pavement distress; Pavement performance; Rigid pavements; Thermal expansion

Highways; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2014 Paper #14-2220

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 2:47PM