Vibration experiment of CTCP-CRCP composite pavement under heavy traffic

Abstract

The accelerations of sandwich-type composite pavements consisting of cross-tensioned concrete pavement (CTCP), asphalt sand (AS) stress-absorbing layer, and continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) layers from the top to the bottom were measured under different traffic loads. First, the acceleration spectra of double plates of composite pavements were measured under axle loads of 100, 200, and 300 kN using an embedded accelerometer. The universal mean of the acceleration ratio of CTCP to CRCP was defined as the stress-absorbing ratio of the AS layer as obtained through statistical analysis of the test data. A frequency spectrum was obtained for the pavement under each vehicle load by using Fourier transformation. Test results show that the maximum acceleration of CTCP and CRCP in composite pavements was 0.022, 0.039, and 0.059 ms−2 and 0.01, 0.015, and 0.025 ms−2 under vehicle loads of 100, 200, and 300 kN, respectively. The corresponding mean stress-absorbing ratio of the AS layers was 3.38, 3.15, and 3.46. The results suggest that the proposed composite pavement is suitable for roads with heavy traffic because its stress-absorbing layer can effectively reduce the pounding caused by heavy loads on the pavement.