1.

Jointed Plain Concrete Pavements: All plain concrete pavements should b e

constructed with closely spaced contraction joints. Dowels or aggregate interlock may be used
for load transfer across the joints. The practice of using or not using dowels varies among the
states. Dowels are used most frequently in the southeastern states, aggregate interlocks in the
western and southwestern states, and both are used in others.

Image 1.1

Design chart

2.Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavements: In Jointed Reinforced Concrete

Pavements (JRCP) the pavement consists of cast in place concrete slabs containing steel
reinforcement and divided into bays separated by joints. The reinforcement is to prevent cracks
from opening and this allows much longer bays to be used than for JUCP. The bays are linked
together by dowels and tie bars as in JUCP. Although longitudinal reinforcement is the main
reinforcement, transverse reinforcement is also used in most cases to facilitate the placing of
longitudinal bars.

Steel reinforcements in the form of wire mesh or deformed bars do not increase the
structural capacity of pavements but allow the use of longer joint spacing. This type of
pavement is used most frequently in the northeastern and north central part of the United
States. Joint spacing vary from (9.1 to 30 m). Because of the longer panel length, dowels are
required for load transfer across the joints. The amount of distributed steel in JRCP increases
with the increase in joint spacing and is designed to hold the slab together after cracking.
However, the number of joints and dowel costs decrease with the increase in joint spacing.
Based on the unit costs of sawing, mesh, dowels, and joint sealants, Nussbaum and Lokken
(1978) found that the most economical joint spacing was about (12.2 m) .Maintenance costs
generally increase with the increase in joint spacing, so the selection of (12 .2 m) as the
maximum joint spacing appears to be warranted .

Image 2.1(JRCP)
 Chart for (JRCP)

3. Continuous Reinforced Concrete Pavements: Continuously Reinforced

Concrete Pavements (CRCP) are made of cast in place reinforced concrete slabs without joints.
The expansion and contraction movements are prevented by a high level of sub-base restraint.
The frequent transverse cracks are held tightly closed by a large amount of continuous high
tensile steel longitudinal reinforcement.

The formation of transverse cracks at relatively close intervals is a distinctive characteristic, of

CRCP. These cracks are held tightly by the reinforcements and should be of no concern as long
as they are uniformly spaced. The distress that occurs most frequently in CRCP is punch out at
the pavement edge. This type of distress takes place between two parallel random transverse
cracks or at the intersection of Y cracks. If failures occur at the pavement edge instead of at the
joint, there is no reason for a thinner CRCP to be used. The 1986 AASHTO design guide suggests
using the same equation or no graph for determining the thickness of JRCP and CRCP. However,
the recommended loadtransfer coefficients for CRCP are slightly smaller than those for JPCP or
JRCP and so result in a slightly smaller thickness of CRCP. The amount of longitudinal reinforcing
steel should be designed to control the spacing and width of cracks and the maximum stress in
the steel.
 Image 3.1 (CRCP)

4. Prestressed Concrete Pavements: Concrete is weak in tension but strong in

compression. The thickness of concrete pavement required is governed by its modulus of
rupture, which varies with the tensile strength of the concrete. The pre-application of a
compressive stress to the concrete greatly reduces the tensile stress caused by the traffic loads
and thus decreases the thickness of concrete required. The pre-stressed concrete pavements
have less probability of cracking and fewer transverse joints and therefore result in less
maintenance and longer pavement life.

Pre-stressed concrete has been used more frequently for airport pavements than for highway
pavements because the saving in thickness for airport pavements is much1 .2 Pavement Types
1 7 greater than that for highway pavements. The thickness of pre-stressed highway pavements
has generally been selected as the minimum necessary to provide sufficient cover for the pre-
stressing steel (Hanna et al., 1976). Pre-stressed concrete pavements are still at the
experimental stage, and their design arises primar.
 Image 4.1(pre-cast concrete pavement)

. Design consideration for riged concrerte pavement

 There are many factors that affect pavement design which can be classified
into four categories as traffic and loading, structural models, material
characterization, environment.

Traffic and loading

Traffic is the most important factor in the pavement design. The key factors
include contact pressure, wheel load, axle configuration, moving loads, load,
and load repetitions.

Contact pressure:

The tyre pressure is an important factor, as it determine the contact area

and the contact pressure between the wheel and the pavement surface.
Even though the shape of the contact area is elliptical, for sake of simplicity
in analysis, a circular area is often considered.

Wheel load:

The next important factor is the wheel load which determines the depth of
the pavement required to ensure that the subgrade soil is not failed. Wheel
configuration affect the stress distribution and deflection within a pavemnet.
Many commercial vehicles have dual rear wheels which ensure that the
contact pressure is within the limits. The normal practice is to convert dual
wheel into an equivalent single wheel load so that the analysis is made
simpler.

Axle configuration:

The load carrying capacity of the commercial vehicle is further enhanced by

the introduction of multiple axles.

Moving loads:

The damage to the pavement is much higher if the vehicle is moving at

creep speed. Many studies show that when the speed is increased from 2
km/hr to 24 km/hr, the stresses and deflection reduced by 40 per cent.

Repetition of Loads:

The influence of traffic on pavement not only depend on the magnitude of

the wheel load, but also on the frequency of the load applications. Each load
application causes some deformation and the total deformation is the
summation of all these. Although the pavement deformation due to single
axle load is very small, the cumulative effect of number of load repetition is
significant. Therefore, modern design is based on total number of standard
axle load (usually 80 kN single axle).

Structural models
The structural models are various analysis approaches to determine the
pavement responses (stresses, strains, and deflections) at various locations
in a pavement due to the application of wheel load. The most common
structural models are layered elastic model and visco-elastic models.

Layered elastic model:

A layered elastic model can compute stresses, strains, and deflections at any
point in a pavement structure resulting from the application of a surface
load. Layered elastic models assume that each pavement structural layer is
homogeneous, isotropic, and linearly elastic. In other words, the material
properties are same at every point in a given layer and the layer will
rebound to its original form once the load is removed. The layered elastic
approach works with relatively simple mathematical models that relates
stress, strain, and deformation with wheel loading and material properties
like modulus of elasticity and poissons ratio.

Material characterization

The following material properties are important for both flexible and rigid
pavements.

 When pavements are considered as linear elastic, the elastic moduli

and poisson ratio of subgrade and each component layer must be
specified.
 If the elastic modulus of a material varies with the time of loading,
then the resilient modulus, which is elastic modulus under repeated
loads, must be selected in accordance with a load duration
corresponding to the vehicle speed.
 When a material is considered non-linear elastic, the constitutive
equation relating the resilient modulus to the state of the stress must
be provided.

However, many of these material properties are used in visco-elastic models

which are very complex and in the development stage. This book covers the
layered elastic model which require the modulus of elasticity and poisson
ratio only.

Environmental factors

Environmental factors affect the performance of the pavement materials and

cause various damages. Environmental factors that affect pavement are of
two types, temperature and precipitation and they are discussed below:
Temperature

The effect of temperature on asphalt pavements is different from that of

concrete pavements. Temperature affects the resilient modulus of asphalt
layers, while it induces curling of concrete slab. In rigid pavements, due to
difference in temperatures of top and bottom of slab, temperature stresses
or frictional stresses are developed. While in flexible pavement, dynamic
modulus of asphaltic concrete varies with temperature. Frost heave causes
differential settlements and pavement roughness. Most detrimental effect of
frost penetration occurs during the spring break up period when the ice
melts and subgrade is a saturated condition.

Precipitation

The precipitation from rain and snow affects the quantity of surface water
infiltrating into the subgrade and the depth of ground water table. Poor
drainage may bring lack of shear strength, pumping, loss of support, etc.

Summary

Several factors affecting pavement design were discussed, the most

important being wheel load. Since pavements are designed to take moving
loads, slow moving loads and static loads can be detrimental to the
pavement. Temperature also influences pavement design especially the frost
action which is very important in cold countries.