Rigid pavement

CE F244 Highway Engineering

Dr. Sarah Mariam Abraham
Question 1

Calculate the stresses due to wheel load of 5100 kg at interior, edge

and corner regions of a cement concrete pavement using
Westergaard’s stress equations for a pavement thickness of 18cm,
modulus of subgrade reaction of 6 kg/cm3. Take the tyre imprint radius
as 15 cm.
Soln:
Si = 19.3 kg/cm2; Se = 28.54 kg/cm2; Sc = 24.27 kg/cm2
 Question 2
Determine the warping stresses at interior, edge and corner regions in a
25 cm thick concrete pavement with transverse joints at 11 m interval
and longitudinal joints at 3.6m intervals. The modulus of subgrade
reaction (k) is 6.9 kg/cm3. Assume temperature differential for day
conditions to be 0.60C per cm slab thickness. Assume radius of loaded
area as 15 cm for computing warping stress at corner.
St(i) = 25.61 kg/cm2
S 2
t(e) = 23.18 kg/cm
St(c) = 6.36 kg/cm2
 Question 3: Practice question
A CC pavement slab of thickness 20cm is constructed over a granular
sub-base having a modulus of subgrade reaction of 15 kg/cm3 in
Karnataka. The spacing between transverse contraction joint is 4.5m
and that between longitudinal joints is 3.5m. The design wheel load is
5100 kg, radius of contact area is 15cm. Find the worst combination of
stresses at edge.

Hint: Take temperature differential from Table 1 (IRC:58)