Design of Rigid

Pavements
AFANDI BIN SAFI
A141506
AMIRUL ANWAR BIN MOHD SOLONG
A139607
MOHD AZMAN BIN SAMER
A141428
MUHAMMAD TAUFIQ BIN OTHMAN
A141468

20.1 Materials Used In Rigid

Pavements

Portland Cement
Carefully mix of limestone, marl and clay
or shale at high temperature.
5 type of Portland cement:
type I
type II
type III
type IV
type V

Coarse aggregate

Fine aggregate

Steel
Reduce amount of
cracking

Control crack width

Reinforci
ng steel

Temperatu
re steel

Tie bars

Dowel
bars

Tie two section of

pavement together

Provide flexural,
shearing, and
bearing resistance

20.2 Joints In Concrete

Pavements

4 basic categories of joints

To limit the stress induced by temperature

change.
To facilitate proper bending of two
adjacent section of pavement.

Expansion
joint
Contraction
joint
Hinged joint
Construction
joint

Provide adequate space

for slab to expand
Helps to reduced tensile
stress induced during slab
contracting
Reduce cracking along
the center line of highway
pavement
To provide suitable
transition between
concrete laid

20.3 Types of Rigid

Pavement

Three general types:

1. Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP)
Has no temperature steel or dowels bars but
steel tie often used to provide hinge effect at
longitudinal joint
Often used at low volume highways
2. Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement (JRCP)
Have dowels for transfer of traffic load across
joint
3. Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement
(CRCP)
No transverse joint
High percentage of steel with minimum at 0.6
percent of cross section of slab

20.4 Pumping of Rigid

Pavements

Definition
Discharge of water and subgrade materials
through joints, cracks, and along pavement
edges

20.5 Stresses In Rigid

Pavement

Three main stress need to be consider in

rigid pavement
i. Stress induced by bending
ii. Stress due to traffic wheel loads
iii. Stress due to temperature effects

20.6 THICKNESS DESIGN OF

RIGID PAVEMENTS

20.6.1 AASHTO Design

Method
Pavements
Performan
ce
Subbase
Strength

Reliability

Design
Consideratio
ns

Subgrade
Strength

Drainage

Concrete
Properties

Traffic

AASHTO Design Procedure

Objective
Thickness of the concrete pavement

20.6.2 Alternate AASHTO Design Method

The procedure requires the following inputs:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

Estimate ESALs
Design reliability, R%
Overall standard deviation, So
Design serviceability loss, PSI = pi - pt
Effective (seasonally adjusted) elastic k
value of the subgrade (lb/in.2)
vi. Concrete modulus of rupture, Sc (lb/in.2)
vii. Concrete elastic modulus, Ec (lb/in.2)
viii. Joint spacing, L (in.)

ix. Base modulus, Eb (lb/in.2)

x. Slab/base friction coefficient,
xi. Base thickness, Hb (in.)
xii. Effective positive temperature differential
through concrete slab TD (F)
xiii.Lane edge support condition:
a. Conventional lane width, 12 ft
from free edge
b. Conventional lane of 12 ft width
with tied concrete shoulder
c. Wide slab; e.g., 14 ft with
conventional traffic lane width of
12 ft

Joint Spacing (Refer Table 20.10-20.12)

The suggested hypothetical joint spacing for
each rigid pavement type is given as:
Jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP):
Use actual joint spacing (ft).
Jointed reinforced concrete pavement
(JRCP): Use actual joint spacing when it
is less than 30 ft; otherwise, use 30 ft
maximum.
Continuously reinforced concrete
pavement: Use 15 ft.

Base Modulus, Eb and Slab/Base Friction

Coefficient, f (Refer Figure 20.16, Table
20.13)
Effective Positive Temperature Differential
through Concrete Slab, (F)
effective positive TD = 0.962 - 52.181/h +
0.341WIND +
0.184TEMP - 0.00836PRECIP

where h = slab thickness (in.)

WIND = mean annual wind speed (mi/h)
TEMP = mean annual temperature (F)
PRECIP = mean annual precipitation (in.)

Lane Edge Support Condition, E

(Refer Table 20.14)
An adjustment factor is used for each of the
lane edge support conditions as given below:
E = 1.0 for conventional traffic lane width
of 12 ft with free edge
= 0.94 for conventional traffic lane width
of
12 ft with tied concrete shoulder
= 0.92 for wide slab (e.g., 14 ft with
conventional traffic lane width of 12 ft)

Design Equations for Rigid Pavement using

the
Alternate Method (Refer Table 20.16-20.17)
Design Check for Joint Load Position
Cracking
1. Determine the required slab thickness
using the midslab load position as the
criterion for design.
2. Determine the midslab tensile stress (t)
at the bottom of the slab.
3. Estimate a total equivalent negative
temperature differential.

4. Estimate the critical stress at the top of

the slab.
5. Compare the tensile stress determined for
midslab loading at the bottom of the slab
with that obtained at the top of the slab
for joint loading.

Design Check for Joint Load Position

Cracking
Joint Load Transfer
Recommend values:
Joint spacing less than 25 ft, critical
mean joint faulting = 0.06 in.
Joint spacing greater than 25 ft, critical
mean joint faulting = 0.13 in.

Procedure for design check:

1. Determine the design thickness of the slab.
2. Use the appropriate model for doweled or
undoweled pavement to estimate the
expected mean joint faulting.
3. Compare the estimated joint faulting with
the recommended mean joint faulting level
to prevent significant loss in serviceability.

20.6.3 PCA DESIGN METHOD

PCA method for concrete pavement design
is based on a combination of theoretical
studies,results of model and full-scale
tests,and experience gained from the
performance of concrete pavements.
Design Condsiderations:
Basic Factors considered in PCA method:
1) Flexural strength
2) Subgrade and subbase support
3) Traffic load

 Flexural Strength of concrete:

is given terms of the modulus of rupture
*The average 28-day test results is used as
input.
Subgrade and subbase
The Westgaard modulus of subgrade reaction,k
is used to define the subgrade and subbase
support.

Traffic Load
The traffic load is computed in terms of
the cumulated number of single and
tandem axles of different loads.
The information required to determine
cumulated numbers are the average daily
traffic, the average daily truck traffic and
axle load distribution.

 Design procedure:
The procedure is based on a detailed
finite-element computer analysis of
stresses and deflections of the pavement
edges, joints, and corners.
The design procedure consists of two
parts:
Fatigue analysis
Erosion analysis.

 Fatigue analysis:
Is to determine the minimum thickness of
the concrete required to control fatigue
cracking
Erosion analysis:
An erosion factor is used instead of the
stress factor.

20.6.4 Mechanistic-Empirical Design

Guide (MEPDG) Method
For jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP).
The procedure is similar to that for the
flexible pavement.
Three Stages:
1. Determination of the input values for trial
design
2. analysis of structural capability
3. Evaluation of the structural viability

 Transverse slab cracking

This may occur either in the bottom-up or
top-down modes in a JPCP slab under a
typical service conditions.
Mean Transverse Joint Faulting
Determined for each month by first
computing the incremental faulting during a
given month from that of the previous
month.

QUESTION?