Mechanical performance of pavement structures with paving slabs – Part II: Numerical simulation tool validated by means of full-scale accelerated tests

Abstract

In recent years, pavement structures with paving slabs have gained importance, especially in urban trafficked areas, because they provide more design options and have great potential with regard to durability and low maintenance compared to flexible pavements. In order to exploit this potential, an accurate and reliable performance prediction by means of appropriate design concepts is necessary. Contributing to this topic, a numerical simulation tool was developed and its performance evaluated by means of full-scale accelerated pavement tests (APT).Within this paper (Part II of this work), a numerical simulation tool is proposed which is able to take into account the non-linear and plastic behavior between paving slabs (vertical joints) and between slabs and sandbed. The material parameters required for the paving concrete slabs, the vertical joints and the base courses are obtained by identification experiments. Finally, the main results from the APT could be reproduced very well with the numerical simulation tool without using phenomenological parameters.