01662949

Component

Changes in curvature due to temperature and moisture gradients in the slab influence the joint performance, specifically load transfer efficiency (LTE) and differential deflection (DD), of doweled jointed concrete pavements. It is essential to be able to characterize the effect of slab curvature on joint performance when interpreting falling weight deflectometer data and when employing the mechanistic-empirical design process. A computational analysis shows that slab curvature affects joint performance parameters when both linear and non-linear behavior of the dowel-concrete interaction are considered. The non-linear behavior is caused by dowel looseness, which results when the concrete surrounding the bar is damaged. For both dowel behaviors, LTE is at a minimum when the slab is approximately flat, and increases as both upward and downward curvature increase. When non-linear dowel behavior is considered, slab curvature has a larger effect on LTE, than when linear dowel behavior is considered. For linear dowel behavior, DD increases as upward curvature increases. For non-linear dowel behavior, DD is larger when the slab is relatively flat, and decreases rapidly to small values as upwards or downwards curvature cause the dowels to “lock up” in the socket. A field investigation of pavement sections shows similar trends to the computational analysis.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFD20 Standing Committee on Pavement Condition Evaluation.

18-06038

English

12p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Concrete pavements; Curvature; Falling weight deflectometers; Mechanistic-empirical pavement design; Pavement joints; Slabs

Differential deflection; Doweled joints (Pavements); Load transfer efficiency

Highways; Pavements

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-06038

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 11:33AM