The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is one of the major factors responsible for distresses in concrete pavements and structures. Continuously reinforced concrete pavements (CRCPs) in particular are highly susceptible to distresses caused by high CTE in concrete. CRCP is a popular choice across the U.S. and around the world for its long service life and minimal maintenance requirements. CRCP has been built in more than 35 states in the U.S., including Texas. In order to prevent CRCP distresses, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has limited the CTE of CRCP concrete to a maximum of 5.5 x10-6 strain/oF (9.9 x10-6 strain/oC). Coarse aggregate sources that produce concrete with CTE higher than the allowable limit are no longer accepted in the TxDOT CRCP projects. Moreover, CTE is an important input in the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). Small deviations in input CTE can affect the pavement thickness significantly in MEPDG designs. Therefore, accurate determination of concrete CTE is important, as it allows for enhanced concrete structure and pavement design as well as accurate screening of CRCP coarse aggregates. Moreover, optimizing the CTE of concrete according to a structure’s needs can reduce that structure’s cracking potential. This will result in significant savings in repair and rehabilitation costs and will improve the durability and longevity of concrete structures. This study found that the CTEs determined from saturated concrete samples were affected by the internal water pressure. As a result, the TxDOT method yielded higher values than did the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) method. To further investigate the effect of internal water pressure, an analytical model was developed based on the poroelastic phenomenon of concrete. According to the model, porosity, permeability, and the rate of temperature change are the major factors that influence the internal water pressure development. Increasing the permeability of concrete can reduce the internal water pressure development and can thus improve the consistency of measured CTE values. Preconditioning concrete samples by subjecting them to several heating and cooling cycles prior to CTE testing and reducing the rate of temperature change improved the consistency of the CTE test results. Concrete CTE can be reduced by blending low-CTE aggregates with high-CTE aggregates and reducing the cement paste volume. Based on these findings, a concrete CTE optimization technique was developed that provides guidelines for the selection of concrete constituents to achieve target concrete CTE. A concrete proportioning technique was also developed to meet the need for CTE optimization. This concrete proportioning technique can use aggregate from any sources, irrespective of gradation, shape, and texture. The proposed technique has the potential to reduce the cement requirement without sacrificing performance and provides guidelines for multiple coarse and fine aggregate blends. / text

Continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) is a portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement structure with a continuous longitudinal steel layout. CRCP is forming a major portion of PCC roadway systems in the state of Texas due to its low life cycle cost, ease of maintenance, and durable nature. While the overall performance of CRCP is proven to be excellent, some performance problems are still found as a form of distresses such as punchout and spalling. The current pavement design guide states that these distresses are closely related with the early-age behavior characteristics of CRCP, and various measures are underway to develop to improve the long-term performance of CRCP in terms of initial material design and use, structural design, and quality control. Understanding the current issues that pavement engineers and researchers face, the primary objective of this dissertation research focuses on sound understanding of the early-age structural behavior characteristics of CRCP and its effect on the long-term performance to provide reliable design and analysis criteria for CRCP. To achieve this main objective, characterizing the early-age structural response in CRCP was a core task of this study. For this purpose, a zero-stress temperature (ZST), one of the design and construction variables considered to have most significant effects on CRCP behavior and performance, was evaluated. As a beginning point of the entire framework, a series of field experiments were conducted in four new PCC pavement construction projects in the state of Texas to evaluate the actual structural response in early-age CRCP since a laboratory experiment would have a critical limitation in simulating the restraint conditions that exist in actual CRCP. To expand this core task to various parametric categories, a computer-aided parametric simulation was performed using valid numerical models. Based on data sets obtained from the parametric investigation, a statistical model to quantify the early-age structural response of CRCP was proposed to implement in codes of practice and pavement design guides. A secondary task was to identify a correlation between the early-age structural response and the long-term performance of CRCP structures. Since the experimental and analytical investigations tended to provide quite localized information for the time-dependent behavior of CRCP, the overall performance of CRCP could not be properly identified solely based on those results. To overcome this limitation, extensive field condition surveys were performed in seven different old CRCP sections with known material and early-age temperature history to find the implications of early-age behavior characteristics on the long-term performance of CRCP from a macroscopic point of view. It is expected that this research effort will provide pavement engineers and researchers with useful information to understand the actual time-dependent behavior of CRCP and a solid foundation to improve the sustainability of CRCP structures. / text

Įrengiant automobilių kelio ar gatvės dangas ant žemės sankasos bei vėliau jas eksploatuojant dėl nuolatos pasikartojančių statinių bei dinaminių transporto priemonių apkrovų gali prasidėti žemės sankasos grunto bei apsauginio šalčiui atsparaus sluoksnio medžiagų sąmaiša. Analogiškas procesas gali vykti ir tarp apsauginio šalčiui atsparaus sluoksnio bei dangos pagrindo medžiagų. Ilgainiui kelio ar gatvės konstrukcijos sluoksnių medžiagų tarpusavio sąmaiša mažina dangos stiprį bei tvarumą. Siekiant išvengti atskirų konstrukcijos sluoksnių mineralinių medžiagų tarpusavio susimaišymo, tiesiant kelius ar gatves bei juos eksploatuojant, pastaruosius 15 metų pasaulyje plačiai taikomi geotekstilės tarpsluoksniai. Jungtinių Amerikos Valstijų mokslininkai geotekstiles parinkti rekomenduoja naudoti skaičiavimus pagal formules, tačiau jos tinka tik keliams be asfaltbetonio dangos. Kitas geotekstilių taikymo būdas – atskirų šalių sukurtos normos bei rekomendacijos. Europoje nėra vieningų norminių dokumentų, reglamentuojančių geotekstilių naudojimą automobilių kelių bei gatvių konstrukcijos sluoksniams atskirti. Tai galima pagrįsti tuo, kad Europos valstybėse yra skirtingos klimatinės bei geologinės sąlygos. Taigi kiekviena ar keletas valstybių, kurioms pagal jų sąlygas aktualu kelio konstrukcijos sluoksnius atskirti geotekstilėmis, turi savo normas ar rekomendacijas. Lietuvoje geosintetinės medžiagos tiesiant ir rekonstruojant automobilių kelius bei miestų gatves naudojamos tik pastarąjį... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / During construction of road or street pavement structure and its operation the continuous static and dynamic vehicle loads may cause the intermixing of the subgrade soil with the frost blanket course. Analogical process could happen between the frost blanket course and the sub-base constructed from the large particles of aggregate. Eventually, the intermixed materials of the different structural layers of road or street can have the impact on the strength and durability of the whole structure. In order to prevent the aggregates of different structural layers from becoming intermixed during road or street construction or in the phase of operation the geotextile inter-layers have been world-widely used in the recent 15 years. Method for selecting geotextiles – specifications and recommendations of different countries. At present there are no generally accepted European specifications regulating the selection of geotextiles intended for separating road or street pavement layers. The reason is that different European countries have different climatic and geological conditions. Thus, each or several countries, where these conditions require separation of pavement structural layers by the geotextile, have their own normative documents or recommendations. Lithuania has only been using geotextiles in road and street construction and reconstruction during the last decade. In 1998 Lithuanian Road Administration adopted the temporary regulations on Using Geotextiles and Geogrids for... [to full text]

Baigiamajame magistro darbe atlikta mokslo darbų, skirtų automobilio rato sąveikai su skirtingos būklės ir savybių kelio danga tyrimams analizė. Atlikti eksperimentiniai tyrimai, kurių metu ištirti temperatūros pokyčiai ratui sąveikaujant su kelio danga ir jų įtaka sankybio rodikliams. Surinkti, susisteminti, statistiškai apdoroti ir išanalizuoti 2011 ir 2012 metais išmatuoto valstybinės reikšmės kelių naujos asfalto dangos ir rato sukibimo koeficiento duomenys. Pateikiamos baigiamojo darbo išvados. Darbą sudaro 6 dalys: įvadas, mokslo darbų analizė, eksperimentiniai automobilio rato sukibimo su kelio danga parametrų tyrimai, valstybinės reikšmės kelių naujos asfalto dangos ir rato sukibimo koeficiento tyrimas ir vertinimas, išvados, literatūros sąrašas. Darbo apimtis – 65 p. teksto be priedų, 46 iliustr., 10 lent., 32 bibliografiniai šaltiniai. Atskirai pridedami darbo priedai. / In this master thesis is performed a research studies analysis about car wheel and road interaction . Car wheel interaction with road pavement tests were performed and temperature changes which affect grip is examined. Collected, structured and statistically analyzed 2011 and 2012 year wheel traction data. The conclusions is presented. The paper consists of six parts: introduction, analysis of scientific articles and studies, experimental study of car wheel grip with road surface parameters, new asphalt pavement grip research and evaluation, conclusions, references. Pages - 65 p. text, 46 pictures., 10 tables., 32 bibliographic sources. Appendixes.

Pavement subsurface drainage systems (PSDS) are designed to drain the entrapped water out of pavement. To investigate the effects of various factors on the performance of PSDS, three dimensional models were developed using the finite element method to simulate the unsaturated drainage process in pavement. The finite element models were calibrated using the field information on outflow, peak flow, layer saturations, and time to drain. Through a series of parametric analyses, the factors that significantly influence the performance of PSDS were screened out, and a set of recommendations were made to improve our current drainage practices.The effects of pavement geometry on drainage were studied in this research. The analysis results indicate that edgedrain system can significantly improve the drainage efficiency of a pavement. The drainage performance of a pavement is mainly affected by the geometric factors that related to the edgedrain itself and the geometric factors related to the driving lanes have very limited effects.To investigate the influences of the properties of various pavement materials, some physical-empirical equations were developed in this research. These equations were used to predict the material hydraulic properties from their grain-size distributions and aggregate/asphalt contents. The analysis results of the models with various material properties indicate that the use of permeable base is effective in improving the drainage ability of a pavement. The performance of PSDS is not only affected by material permeability but also by their waterretention ability. The pavement works as an integrated hydraulic system and the hydraulic compatibility of materials must be considered in the PSDS design.The effects of climatic factors on pavement drainage were also studied in this research. A method was developed in this research to numerically describe the rainfall events. The analysis results of the models under various rainfall events indicate that rainfall duration is a more important parameter than the rainfall quantity in influencing the pavement drainage. Based on the analysis results, regression equations were developed for the estimation of pavement drainage. Finally, for design application purpose, a series of tables were included in this report to help with proper selected of pavement drainage options.

The roads in our society are in a state of constant degradation. The reasons for this are many, and therefore constructed to have a certain lifetime before being reconstructed. To minimize the cost of maintaining the important transport road network high quality prediction models are needed. This report presents new models for flexible pavement structures for initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks in the bound layers and rutting for the whole structure. The models are based on observations from the Swedish Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database. The intention is to use them for planning maintenance as part of a pavement management system (PMS). A statistical approach is used for the modeling, where both cracking and rutting are related to traffic data, climate conditions, and the subgrade characteristics as well as the pavement structure.

Transport infrastructures such as roads are assets for the society as they not only ensure mobility but also strengthen society’s economy. Considerable amount of energy and materials, that include bitumen, aggregates and asphalt, are required to build and maintain roads. Improper utilization of energy and/or use of materials may lead to more waste and higher costs. The impact on the environment cannot be neglected either. Life cycle assessment (LCA) as a method can be used to assess the environmental impacts of a road system over its entire life time. Studying the life cycle perspective of roads can help us improve the technology in order to achieve a system that has a lower impact on the environment. There are number of LCA tools available. However, implementation of such tools is still unseen in real road projects. This clearly indicates that there are gaps which are needed to be filled in order to bring these tools into practice. An open road LCA framework was developed for the asphalt roads in order to help in decision support at the late project planning stage such as that related to the green procurement. The framework takes into account the construction, maintenance and end of life phases and focuses on energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Threshold values for the production of some additives were also determined to show how LCA tools can help material suppliers to improve the road materials production processes and the road authorities to set limits on the use of different materials based on the environmental criteria. Additive consideration and feedstock energy in road LCAs were also identified as gaps that were looked in detail. The attributes that are important to consider in an asphalt road LCA that seeks to serve as a decision support in a procurement situation are described. A brief literature review was carried out that focused on project LCAs, and specifically those considering pavements, as this level is assumed to be appropriate for questions relevant in a procurement situation. Following the different standards; road LCAs developed all over the world have generated a lot of knowledge and the studies have been different from each other such as in terms of goals and system boundaries. Hence, the patterns observed have been very different from study to study. It was also difficult to assess the decision support level for which the various LCA frameworks or tools were developed. It is important to define system boundaries based on where in the system the decision support is needed. For LCA to be useful for decision support in a procurement situation, it is important to have a clear understanding of the attributes that constitute the life cycle phases and how data of high quality for them are obtained. The level of consistency and transparency of road LCAs becomes increasingly important in pre-procurement and procurement situations. The key attributes used in a road LCA should mirror the material properties used in a pavement design and therefore be closely linked to the performance of the road in its life cycle. From the different case studies, it was found that asphalt production and transportation of materials are usually highest in the energy and GHG emissions chain. It is highly favorable to have the quarry site, the asphalt plant and the construction site not far from each other and to use the electricity that has been produced in an efficient way. Based on the laboratory test results, it is shown that the effects of chemical warm mix asphalt additives (WMAA)s must be evaluated on a case by case basis since WMAA interaction with the aggregate surface mineralogy appears to play a significant role and thus affects its long term structural behavior. Using the material properties obtained from the Superpave indirect tensile test (IDT) results, pavement thickness design was done in which Arlanda aggregate based asphalt mixtures resulted in thinner pavements as compared to Skärlunda aggregate based asphalt mixtures for the same design life period. Energy (feedstock and expended) saving and reduction in GHG emissions were also seen with addition of WMAA, for both aggregate type cases, based on the data used. Importantly, the results presented illustrate the importance of a systems based LCA approach for evaluating the sustainability for different design and construction options. In this context, having actual pavement material properties as the key attributes in the LCA enables a pavement focused assessment of environmental costs associated with different design options. / <p>QC 20141118</p>

Concrete block pavement (CBP) can be an alternative pavement to asphalt and concrete pavements. CBP is formed from individual concrete paving blocks (CPBs) that fit next to one another on a suitable sub base leaving a specific joint space among them to be filled with jointing sand. CBP differ from other pavements according to their mechanical behavior, manufacturing technique, structural design, installation technique and structural behavior. For a serviceable pavement all of these subjects have to be studied. The literature about the mechanical behavior of CPBs is not adequate. This study aims to determine the performance of CPBs formed from different mixes prepared with a white portland cement. For this purpose, 10 mixes with different cement contents and W/C ratios and 2 mixes from a commercial CPB manufacturer were tested. The compressive strength, tensile splitting strength, abrasion resistance, density and % water absorption tests were performed on each mix at 7, 14, 28 days. It was concluded that, the cement content in the mix, optimum water volume for a given cement content, the way the manufacturing equipment is operated and their interaction was effective on the mechanical properties of CPBs. It was also observed that there was no handicap to stop the abrasion resistance test at 8*22 revolutions instead of 16*22 revolutions given in TS 2824.

Há algumas décadas a viga de Benkelman vem sendo utilizada como um meio de controlar a qualidade das camadas de pavimento recém executadas, ao aferir as deflexões máximas na superfície dos materiais. Apesar disto, não existe qualquer referência que auxilie na determinação das deflexões admissíveis, uma vez que nenhuma norma técnica trata sobre os valores aceitáveis para a liberação das camadas. Neste contexto, as responsáveis pela definição dos parâmetros de controle passam a ser as projetistas, que muitas vezes não possuem conhecimento suficiente sobre os materiais de pavimentação para cumprir esta tarefa. O resultado disto são valores de controle sem fundamentos e inconsistentes, que são incapazes de representar de forma fidedigna as condições de campo, gerando uma série de dificuldades em obra. Sendo assim, este trabalho tem por objetivo fazer uma reflexão crítica sobre o modo como as deflexões de controle são definidas pelas projetistas, analisando as considerações de projeto que podem levar a resultados incoerentes em campo e propondo diretrizes para o aperfeiçoamento desta prática. Para isto, foi feita uma revisão bibliográfica sobre os principais fatores que podem afetar os valores de módulos de resiliência dos materiais e, consequentemente, as medidas de deflexões. Complementarmente, foram revisados valores de módulos de resiliências obtidos em laboratório e retroanalisados em pista. Em seguida, foi estudado o caso da obra de ampliação do Aeroporto Internacional Tom Jobim no Rio de Janeiro, em que resultados insatisfatórios de deflexões obtidas em campo levaram a uma revisão dos parâmetros de controle, revelando os principais equívocos cometidos pela projetista e os pontos críticos do processo de determinação dos valores de controle. Com base nisto, foi feita uma análise crítica das deflexões revisadas, mostrando como a variação de alguns critérios e parâmetros pode afetar os resultados e o que isto representa em termos práticos para o controle deflectométrico. Por fim, foi realizado um refinamento dos valores de deflexões de controle definidos pela projetista. / For decades, the Benkelman beam has been used to assure the quality of pavement construction by measuring the maximum deflections on top of the materials. Nevertheless, there are neither technical standards nor any references that determine a range of acceptable values for deflection. In this context, the definition of these parameters of control is the responsibility of the designers, who mostly do not have the expertise to complete the task. Consequently, the control values tend to be inconsistent and unable to represent in a reliable way the site conditions, creating a number of constraints/shortcomings. Hence, the objective of this dissertation is to undertake a critical analysis on the way the acceptable deflections are determined by the designers, evaluating the project assumptions that can lead to incoherent results on site and proposing guidelines for the improvement of this practice. For this, the main factors that can affect the elasticity of the materials and its deflections were reviewed, in addition to typical values of resilient modulus obtained in laboratory and from backanalysis. Next, the case of the Rio de Janeiro International Airport expansion project was studied. On that occasion, the deflections measured on site during the construction of the pavements were constantly greater than the control values indicated in the project. A revision of the parameters was undertaken by the designer to identify the reasons for the discrepancies and thus, unveiling the critical points of the process. Based on that, a critical analysis on the revised deflections was carried out, showing how the variation of some criteria and parameters can affect the results and what this represents in practical terms for the deflectometric control. Finally, a refinement of the acceptable deflections defined by the designer was proposed.

Estimar com acurácia a vida útil de um pavimento é um dos maiores desafios que enfrentam os engenheiros rodoviários. Recentemente uma nova ferramenta tem sido utilizada para estimar de forma mais realista o desempenho de pavimentos; trata-se dos simuladores de tráfego. Neste contexto, esta dissertação apresenta um estudo do comportamento de um pavimento flexível típico da Região Sul do Brasil, submetido a ensaios acelerados com um simulador de tráfego linear móvel (semelhante ao HVS da República Sul-Africana). O pavimento encontra-se na rodovia BR-290, uma das principais vias do Rio Grande do Sul, que está desde 1997 sob concessão à iniciativa privada. De maio a outubro de 2007 duas seções testes com idêntica estrutura de pavimento, construídas em outubro de 2004, foram solicitadas pelo simulador de tráfego. A primeira seção teste, situada na faixa externa da pista, tinha sido solicitada pelo tráfego real (com elevada concentração de veículos de carga), estimando-se que, desde a construção até o início dos ensaios acelerados, recebera aproximadamente 4,0 x106 operações equivalentes do eixo padrão (eixo simples com rodas duplas com carga igual a 8,2 tf), calculadas empregando-se os fatores de equivalência de carga da AASHTO (NAASHTO). A outra seção teste, por estar situada no acostamento da rodovia, praticamente não tinha sido previamente solicitada pelo tráfego. O simulador de tráfego aplicou a essas seções testes, respectivamente, 170 mil e 255 mil ciclos de carga de um semi-eixo simples de rodas duplas de 8 tf (equivalente a carga de eixo de 16 tf). Para acompanhar o comportamento do pavimento, mediram-se, ao longo dos períodos de ensaio, deflexões e afundamentos nas trilhas de rodas. Trincas foram medidas e mapeadas, calculando-se um índice de densidade de trincamento. Dados de temperatura e precipitação pluviométrica também foram obtidos. As medidas de campo evidenciaram uma significativa aceleração na degradação do pavimento quando submetido à ação do simulador. Com os ensaios acelerados concluídos, amostras das camadas asfálticas das duas seções testes foram extraídas, determinando-se em laboratório valores de resistência à tração, módulo de resiliência (com diferentes tempos de carga) e curvas de fadiga. Desse modo, foi possível estimar a tendência de desempenho do pavimento desde a sua construção até o término de sua vida de serviço, comparando-se a ação do simulador com a do tráfego real. Na análise foram considerados os efeitos da velocidade (baixa) do carregamento imposto pelo simulador de tráfego nos módulos de deformabilidade do ligante asfáltico e da mistura asfáltica. Também foi avaliado o efeito acelerador na degradação do pavimento, decorrente das elevadas tensões geradas pela carga de eixo do simulador, muito superior às correspondentes a veículos comerciais. Assim, estimou-se que um ciclo de carga (carga de eixo de 16 tf) do simulador móvel, aplicado à velocidade de 8 km/h, corresponde à passagem de 30 a 40 eixos padrão, na velocidade do tráfego real, e que a vida de serviço do pavimento analisado é de aproximadamente 8,2 x106 eixos padrão (NAASHTO). / The accurate prediction of pavements lives is one of the most difficult challenges that Pavement Engineers face. Traffic simulators have been recently used as a new tool to improve the prediction of pavements performances: In this context, this MSc Thesis presents a study on the behavior of an asphalt pavement with structure typical of those built in Southern Brazil, submitted to accelerated testing by a mobile traffic simulator (similar to the South African HVS). The pavement is on BR-290, one of the most important highways in Rio do Grande do Sul (Brazil southernmost state); a toll-road since 1997. From May to October 2007, two test sections with identical structures, built in 2004, were loaded by the traffic simulator. The first section was in one of the outer lanes of the highway and before the beginning of accelerated tests had been trafficked by some 4 million ESALs (82 kN equivalent single axle loads). The other test section, since was on one of the highway shoulders, had practically received no traffic. The traffic simulator applied 170,000 and 255,000 repetitions of 160-kN axle load to those test sections, respectively. In order to follow pavement performance along the traffic periods, deflections and rut depths were measured. Cracks were mapped as soon as they appeared and a Cracking Density Index was computed. Air temperature and rainfall data were also stored. Field measurements displayed a remarkably acceleration in pavements distress due to the traffic simulator action. After accelerated testing ending, asphalt mixes specimens were cored and tested to tensile strength and resilient modulus. Fatigue curves were also obtained through laboratory testing. Accelerated testing, complemented by laboratory results, allowed estimating a tendency for pavement performance, from construction to the end of its service live, and comparing the action of the traffic simulator to that of real traffic. The effects of the low loading speed of the traffic simulator on the asphalt binder and asphalt mixture resilient modulus were evaluated; as well as the acceleration of pavements distress due to high stresses generated by the traffic simulator axle load, that largely exceeds those applied by commercial vehicles. Thus, it was estimated that a loading cycle (160-kN axle load) of the traffic simulator, applied at 8 km/h, would cause the same distress than 30 to 40 ESALs applied at commercial speed. It was also concluded that the service life of the analyzed pavement structure was approximately 8.2 million ESALs.