Mechanical behaviour of concrete pavement widening

Abstract

When the old cement concrete pavement continues to be used for widening, compared with the new construction, there are some prominent challenges, such as non-uniform support of the new and old subgrades, additional settlement of the old subgrade caused by the widened new subgrade, and gap between the tie-bar added to the old pavement slab and the concrete. To reveal the difference in the mechanical behaviour of the widened and new cement concrete pavement structures under vehicle load, a finite element model of the cement concrete pavement widening is established with the use of KENSLABS computer programme. The influence weight of non-uniform support of old and new subgrades, additional settlement of new subgrade to old subgrade and gap between tie-bar added within old pavement slab and concrete on deflection in cement concrete pavement widening is clarified, and the control measures for the deflection are proposed.