Jaymark Parba

Highway Engineering- Written Report

CONCRETE PAVEMENT CHARACTERISTICS AND BEHAVIOR

The behavior of concrete pavement that is expose to loading and environmental effect entirely depends
upon the:

 Quality of concrete
 Underlying sub-grade
 Base course

Concrete Characteristics and Behavior

-strong in resisting compression load acting on it, but considerably weak in resisting tensile stress.

- Also expand and contract due to temperature changes. It expands when wet and contracts when dried.
- After pouring, concrete shrinks as the mortar hardens and the cement hydrates

- Concrete pavement changes in length with time of day for being exposed to different elements of
weather changes

- A curl tendency is very likely due to the effect of daily and seasonal temperature and moisture
differences between the top and bottom of slab.

CONCRETE PAVEMENT DESIGN ASSUMES THE FOLLOWING CONSIDERATIONS

1. That the pavement slab was designed as plain concrete beams.

2. that, transverse cracks on the concrete pavement cannot be avoided. The designer however,
presumes that the pavement cracks could be controlled, by providing reinforcement to the slab joints
with the following assumptions.

a.) With reinforcement, cracks on the slab will be confined to a weekend plain joints spaced at
4.50 to 6.00 meters distance.

b.) Vertical offsetting across the narrow cracks will be prevented by aggregate interlock, or by
dowel bars.

c.) With simply reinforced slab, cracks will only appear at weakened plane joints spaced at 12-20
meters interval. Hair cracks that can be held tightly by the steel between joints.

d.) With continuous reinforcement, transverse joints omitted. Hair cracks are checked by the
steel and developed at close intervals.

e.) Faulting is countered by aggregate interlock and steel bars.

3. The longitudinal cracks on the pavement slab more than one lane wide are inevitable.
4. Pavement slab is supported by foundation that deflects when loaded but recover when the load is
removed, assuming that the foundation materials are elastic or like a dense liquid.

Deterioration of concrete pavement is due to stress brought about by 1 rad, moisture and temperature.
Distress of concrete is generally grouped into the following categories:

a. Distortion
b. b. Cracking
c. c. Disintegration

Other Concrete Pavement Behaviors

Distortion is a vertical displacement of concrete slab at the joint of the cracks. Distortion is due to failure
or weakness of concrete joints.

Faulting is the result of pumping tremendous force or load that developed under the pavement. For
faulting to occur, there must be free water on the top of the base course and pavement deflection
across the joint due to heavy axle loads.

Causes of faulting:

a. Loss of slab support

b. Erosion of sub base

Cracking can take many forms in concrete pavement that could be the result from; applied load,
temperature or moisture changes.

The most common type of cracks:

a. Corner cracks associated with excessive corner deflection.

b. Transverse cracks associated with mixture or temperature stress, or poor construction

methods.

Disintegration appears in the form of durability cracking, scaling or spalling, as the result of mix design
or construction related problems like:

a. Durability cracking. Result from freeze thaw action

b. Scaling. A network of shallow fine hairline cracks which extend through the upper surface of the
concrete. This is the result from deicing salts, improper construction, freeze-thaw cycle, or steel
reinforcement too closed to the surface

c. Spalling is the breaking or chipping of the joint edges. It is the result from excessive stresses at joint,
weak concrete, poorly designed or constructed joints

Changes in temperature and moisture content create slab curling, flexure stresses and overall
lengthening and shortening of the slabs. The tendency of the slab to shorten is due to temperature drop
or dying that create tensile stresses. On the other hand, the tendency to lengthen is due to temperature
rise or increased in moisture that creates compression stresses.

TRANSVERSE EXPANSION JOINTS

Expansion Joints provide space allowance for the lengthening of slab due to expansion. Because of the
many buckling upward of concrete pavement, Engineers have come up with a conclusion that these
blowups serves as conclusive evidence that expansion joint is necessary.

LONGITUDINAL JOINTS

Longitudinal joints are provided between adjacent traffic lanes. It is considered as hinges to provide
edge support, but allows rotation between the slabs. By this joint, flexural stresses that might cause
irregular cracks along the length of the road are relieved or neutralized. Longitudinal joints cannot be
considered as a major problem under the following assumptions:

1. That there is no big load transfer across it.

2. That, the expansion and contraction movement developed across the pavement width is very small.

3. When lanes are constructed at different time using side forms, the joints are provided with key way in
the first slab to accept load transfer.

4. For longitudinal joint, deformed tie bars are used because the purpose is to hold the slabs tightly
together, rather to allow the joints to open and close.

5. The diameter and spacing of tie bars are based on the forced needed to pull the narrow pavement
slab over the sub-grade to the joint.

6. The length of tie bar is determined from the embedment inside the concrete necessary to develop the
strength of the bar.

CONSTRUCTION JOINT

If concrete pouring will be interrupted for quite some time that cold joint will be inevitable, the practice
is to provide a transverse construction joints. Deformed tie bars are used to hold the joint tightly closed
together. However, if the construction joint replaces a contraction joint, the use of dowels is the
alternative. Construction joints and cracks should be cleaned and sealed to prevent infiltration of water
to the sub-grade and to keep dirt out of the joints. Materials for such purpose includes harder paving
and air blown asphalt sometimes mixed with mineral filler, rubber asphalt, and various rubber
compounds. They are poured hot and stiff, then cooled, and others are placed cold. There are some pre-
formed sealant made of strips of extruded neoprene compressed for insertion into the groove joints, the
sealant will expand and fill the space completely.