Experimental Evaluation of Longitudinal Behavior of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement Depending on Base Type

Department

Civil and Construction Engineering

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-4-2016

Abstract

The objective of this study is to understand the confining effect of two base types on the longitudinal displacements of the continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) subjected to short- and long-term temperature loadings. To this end, a series of full field experiments was carried out at two highway CRCP sections in Korea: one section with asphalt bond breaker beneath the concrete slab and the other with lean concrete beneath the concrete slab. Each section was instrumented with linear variable differential transformers and thermocouples to monitor the longitudinal displacements (expansions and contractions) of the concrete slab at different longitudinal locations as the temperature changed throughout the year. Results showed that the lean concrete base was more effective at confining the daily maximum expansions than the asphalt bond breaker especially in the region between the free end and 10 m away from the free end. In addition, the free-end expansion gradients (expansion per unit temperature change) were developed based on the test data to estimate the annual maximum expansions along with the daily maximum expansions of the terminals. Finally, the optimum expansion joint widths were proposed for CRCP with varying construction and design conditions, such as base type, slab length, and construction season.

Journal Title

Construction and Building Materials

Journal ISSN

1879-0526

Volume

114

Issue

1

First Page

374

Last Page

382

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.03.193

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