Highway Engineering Handbook 0071597638 Ch03 & 06

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CHAPTER 3

PAVEMENT DESIGN ANDREHABILITATION

Aric A. Morse, P.E.

Pavement Design Engineer Ohio Department of TransportationColumbus, Ohio

Roger L. Green, P.E.

Pavement Research Engineer Ohio Department of TransportationColumbus, Ohio

The movement of people and goods throughout the world is primarily dependent upona transportation network consisting of roadways. Most, if not all, business economies,personal economies, and public economies are the result of this transportation system.Considering the high initial and annual costs of roadways, and since each roadwayserves many users, the only prudent owner of roadways is the public sector. Thus it isthe discipline of civil engineering that manages the vast network of roadways.The surface of these roadways, the

pavement,

must have sufficient smoothness toallow a reasonable speed of travel, as well as ensure the safety of people and cargo.Additionally, once the pavement is in service, the economies that depend upon it will befinancially burdened if the pavement is taken out of service for repair or maintenance.Thus, pavements should be designed to be long lasting with few maintenance needs.The accomplishment of a successful pavement design depends upon several variables.The practice of pavement design is based on both engineering principles and experience.Pavements were built long before computers, calculators, and even slide rules. Prior to moremodern times, pavements were designed by trial-and-error and common sense methods,rather than the more complicated methods being used currently. Even more modernmethods require a certain amount of experience and common sense. The most widelyused methods today are based on experiments with full-scale, in-service pavements thatwere built and monitored to failure. Empirical information derived from these road testsis the most common basis for current pavement design methods. More recently, with theever-expanding power of personal computers, more mathematically based pavementdesign methods such as finite element analysis and refined elastic layer theory have beenintroduced. These methods require extensive training to use and are not developed for theinexperienced.

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CHAPTER THREE

Types of pavements can be broadly categorized as rigid, flexible, or composite.The characteristics of these types are reviewed in the following articles.

3.1RIGID PAVEMENT

Rigid pavement can be constructed with contraction joints, expansion joints, dowelled joints, no joints, temperature steel, continuous reinforcing steel, or no steel. Most generally,the construction requirements concerning these options are carefully chosen by theowner or the public entity that will be responsible for future maintenance of the pave-ment. The types of joints and the amount of steel used are chosen in concert as a strategyto control cracking in the concrete pavement. Often, the owner specifies the constructionrequirements but requires the designer to take care of other details such as intersection jointing details and the like. It is imperative that a designer understand all of thesedesign options and the role each of these plays in concrete pavement performance.The category of rigid pavements can be further broken down into those with jointsand those without. Jointed reinforced concrete pavement (JRCP) and jointed plain con-crete pavement (JPCP) are the two basic types of jointed concrete pavement.Continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) has no joints. JRCP is designed formaximum joint spacing permitting cracking between joints and requires temperaturesteel. JPCP is designed for no cracking between joints; thus, joint spacing is mini-mized and temperature steel is eliminated. Historically, many jointed pavements wereconstructed without dowelled joints. Past performance of undowelled jointed pavements—with the exception of warm, dry climates or low-volume roadways—has been poor.Where there are more than a few trucks per day, dowels should be considered at con-traction joints. However, low-volume roadways that do not carry significant trucks,such as residential streets, may perform satisfactorily without dowelled joints.

3.1.1Jointed Rigid Pavement

Jointed rigid pavements tend to crack at 13 to 25 ft (4 to 8 m) lengths because of (1) initialshrinkage after placement as excess water evaporates, (2) temperature-induced expansionand contraction resisted by friction with the subgrade, (3) curling and warping caused bytemperature and moisture differences between the top and bottom of the slab, and (4) load-induced stresses.As slabs contract as a result of seasonal temperature changes, cracks form andwiden, or formed joints widen, allowing incompressible materials into the cracks or joints. Subsequently, expansion is hindered and pressure is built up in the pavement.This pressure can result in pressure spalling or even blowups. To control this, partialdepth saw cuts are made at regular intervals which induce concrete to crack at theselocations. The timing and depth of these saw cuts are critical to ensure that thepavement cracks at the controlled location. Saw cuts should be made as soon as the pave-ment can support the weight of the saw and operator. The saw cuts should be made at adepth of one-third of the slab thickness for longitudinal joints, and one-fourth of theslab thickness for transverse joints. These saw cuts are then sealed with some type of joint sealer to prevent intrusion of incompressibles. If the saw cut interval (joint spacing)is short enough, intermediate cracks are eliminated. If longer intervals are used, interme-diate cracks will form.Load transfer is the critical element at joints and cracks. In undowelled, unrein-forced pavements, any load transfer must be provided by aggregate interlock.