The Evaluation of Deflection and Tensile Stress in Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement for a Damaged Road

Abstract

Most local governments in Indonesia experienced problems in developing pavements on expansive soil as observed in the damages to the road segment due to the conditions of the soil and excessive traffic loads. This has led to the rehabilitation of the road pavement by designing a continuous rigid structure without reinforcement. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse and evaluate the condition of a jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) structure without reinforcement based on the results of deflection and tensile stress. The process involved the application of Manual Road Pavement method to determine the pavement thickness as well as the use of analytical and numerical analysis to produce tensile and deflection values at CBR variations of 2% to 6%. Moreover, loads were applied at the edge and centre of the concrete plates and the results from the two methods of analysis were compared to determine the usefulness of different types of reinforced rigid pavement on the conditions of expansive soil subgrade. Meanwhile, the jointed plain concrete pavement analysis without reinforcement produced a 25 cm thick concrete plate and the thickness was further analysed analytically and numerically using variations in CBR values from 2% to 6%. The deflection and tensile stress values, however, met the maximum limit required.