Cement concrete pavement responses considering part-fill and part-cut subgrade characteristics

Abstract

ABSTRACT Part-fill and part-cut subgrade is widely distributed in mountainous highway engineering, and their resilient modulus and settlement exhibit significant transversal non-uniformity, which has an important effect on the performance of cement concrete pavement structure. A numerical model, focusing on a two-slab system on part-fill and part-cut subgrade, was developed by the finite element computer programme taking into account non-uniform settlement (a large range of partial contact) simultaneously with non-uniform modulus. Cement concrete pavement structure responses, including the load stress, vertical displacement and joint load transfer capacity were comprehensively investigated considering the two part-fill and part-cut subgrade characteristics. The results indicate that the non-uniform settlement has a higher impact on the concrete pavement structure than that of the non-uniform modulus in more cases. When the resilient modulus of the fill part is close to that of the cut part, the additional stress (relative stress increment) caused by the combination of the two factors is approximately the sum of the additional stress caused by the two factors individually.