Jointed Pavements Research Articles

Use of Waste Slag and Rubber Particles to Make Mortar for Filling the Joints of Snow-Melting Concrete Pavement

Use of Waste Slag and Rubber Particles to Make Mortar for Filling the Joints of Snow-Melting Concrete Pavement

Design of Two-Layer Roller Compacted Concrete with Joints by KENSLAB

Roller compacted concrete (RCC) is a type of rigid pavement that is designed in a similar way to conventional concrete pavements reflecting its mode of failure. The thickness design of RCC pavements is based on keeping the flexural stresses and fatigue damage in the pavement caused by wheel loads within allowable limits. As in all jointed concrete pavements, there is a greater effect from loads placed along edges and less at interior locations in the pavement. Joints in RCC pavement are clearly critical areas and form weak points. RCC is typically constructed with saw-cut joints to prevent random cracking, improve the appearance of the pavement surface, and maintain the highest possible load transfer across the joints. This paper presents an approach to designing the thickness of a two-layer RCC with induced cracks (i.e., joints) based on load transfer stiffness and fatigue damage, using the KENSLAB program to obtain pavement life, predict joint deterioration, and pavement damage.

Analytical Investigation of Fatigue Behavior in a Modified Composite Steel Box Concrete Girder Bridge with Corrugated Steel Webs under Pavement and Expansion Joint Deterioration

Analytical Investigation of Fatigue Behavior in a Modified Composite Steel Box Concrete Girder Bridge with Corrugated Steel Webs under Pavement and Expansion Joint Deterioration

Mechanical behaviour of bridge expansion joint interfaces filled with novel polyurethane-modified asphalt

The use of Asphalt Plug Joints (APJs) in bridge construction has rapidly expanded due to their distinct advantages in driving comfort, shock absorption, noise reduction, and maintenance ease. However, prolonged exposure to vehicular loads and environmental factors renders this expansion joint susceptible to interface effects and stress concentration, leading to damage, particularly at the interface layers between the expansion joint pavement and the expansion joint-cross joint plate contact areas. To address issues such as stress concentration, this study proposes a polyurethane-modified asphalt concrete mixture as the joint filling material. Pull-out and inclined shear tests are used to identify a bonding agent with superior adhesive properties. Additionally, a finite element model of pull-out specimens containing bilinear cohesive elements is established to simulate the cohesive damage process of the interface layers. Through parameter design analysis, the study examines the influence of individual parameter variations on interface damage behavior, obtaining comprehensive simulated analysis data on interface crack resistance performance. Based on interface test data, a bilinear cohesive force model and a viscoelastic material model of the asphalt concrete mixture are employed to establish a scaled-down model of the improved geometry design of the new APJ. This model simulates the interface mechanical characteristics of APJs under temperature effects and vehicle loads. The results demonstrate that the bilinear cohesive force model effectively simulates the nonlinear behavior of interface bonding slip. Furthermore, the use of SZ interface bonding agents and improvements in cross joint plate form can effectively mitigate issues such as uneven settlement and low-temperature cracking.

Learning the Appropriate Local Averaging Length for Traffic Speed Deflectometer Deflection Velocity Measurements: Application to the Analysis of Rigid Pavement Joint Responses

Learning the Appropriate Local Averaging Length for Traffic Speed Deflectometer Deflection Velocity Measurements: Application to the Analysis of Rigid Pavement Joint Responses

Analysis of reflective cracking in asphalt overlaid jointed concrete airfield pavements using a 3D generalized finite element approach

ABSTRACT Asphalt Concrete (AC) overlays are a common strategy for maintaining PCC airfield pavements. However, the movement of joints in the underlying pavement may lead to reflective cracks propagating to the overlay. The problem is highly three-dimensional resulting in mixed mode of cracks due to the aircraft gear loading configurations and underlying concrete pavement joint spacing and design. The development of a 3D model of airfield pavements to predict reflective cracking using Finite Element Method (FEM) and Generalized Finite Element Method (GFEM), is presented in this study. GFEM enrichment strategy and global-local approach are used to achieve efficient framework for developing the models from both computational and user time perspective. Viscoelastic fracture analysis was performed using elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle. Sensitivity of the domain size, order of approximation and boundary conditions are investigated in the numerical simulations. It is shown that the crack initiation and propagation is a combination of Mode-I (tensile) and Mode-II (shearing) crack opening. The presented models contributes to the mechanistic empirical reflective cracking design algorithm for the FAA pavement design program.

Studying the Impact of Soil Stabilization Techniques on Rigid Pavement Joints Across Various Axle Loads

Rigid pavement slabs are erected on a prepared subgrade or foundation layer, providing a hard and continuous surface. Transverse joints made of dowel bars connect them, and longitudinal joints made of tie bars join them longitudinally. This study is an investigation of the impact of soil strength and concrete parameters on the effectiveness of dowel bars in rigid pavements. Moreover, three parameters were examined; California Bearing Ratio (CBR), concrete compressive strength and slab thickness. The analysis was conducted using the Ever FE program and focused on several axle configurations applied to the joint. The results indicate inverse association between the pavement slab thickness and the concrete strength, under the assumption of consistent soil strength. Moreover, an assortment of reduced shear forces on the dowel bars is seen when the soil strength values increase. It indicates that soil strength has a greater impact on the shear load of dowel bars compared to the qualities of concrete. Additionally, the type of axles used and the magnitude of soil strength were shown to have a significant effect on the shear load.

A novel moisture damage detection method for asphalt pavement from GPR signal with CWT and CNN

To locate the moisture damage area in asphalt pavement, an automatic detection method by leveraging the state-of-the-art deep learning approach and continuous wavelet transform (CWT) method from high frequency GPR signal was presented. A numeric simulation and a laboratory experiment were employed to analyze the response of GPR signal in moisture damage area. GPR signals were transferred to time-frequency domain by using a CWT method, before comparing CWT results among normal pavement, moisture and bridge joints. Moisture damage datasets, including 8215 traces of moisture damages, 8215 traces of normal pavement and 7643 traces of bridge joints, were extracted from GPR field survey of bridge pavement with 2.3 GHz antenna. The maximum and mean values of CWT results were obtained from the dataset and used to normalize the CWT dataset. Typical classification models, including Resnet50, ResNet18, ShuffleNet, EfficientNet, NasNetmobile and DenseNet, were trained and compared on the CWT dataset. The result indicates that the CWT features among normal pavement, moisture damage and bridge joints have significant differences. Moreover, the energy distribution in the CWT image can represent the moisture damage depth and width information, proving that the CWT method is effective for extracting moisture damage features from GPR signal. The overall performance of ResNet50 model is best with high accuracy and high efficiency in moisture detection compared to other models. Experimental results proved the promising performance of our approach in detecting moisture damage in asphalt pavement, and this method could also be used for subsurface target detection in other GPR application.

Small-scale laboratory tests for quantifying aggregate interlocking in short-panelled concrete pavements

In the present study, a simple and reliabe small-scale laboratory test to assess the performance of aggregate interlocked joints in short-panelled concrete pavements in terms of LTE is proposed. In the proposed test method, conventional standard flexural strength test beam specimens (100×100× 500mm) are used for understanding the performance of aggregate interlocking of PQC mix specimens prepared using coarse aggregates of different NMAS and with addition of both micro and macro fibers. The test setup is also modelled in ANSYS FE software. The experimentally obtained LTE is compared with the LTE obtained from the FE model. The field FWD test is conducted for validation. The relative movement is determined from FWD test, and corresponding LTE is determined using the LTE and RM relationship obtained from experimental results using the proposed test apparatus. There exists good linear fit between the LTE determined using proposed test and field FWD test results.

Performance evaluation of non-oil permeable creep rubber waterproof material for airport pavement joints

A frequent condition of cement concrete pavement at civil airports is slab cavity caused by surface water infiltration, which is a significant safety risk in the regular operation of airports. Mitigation methods to lessen surface water penetration is strongly required. This study examines the tensile and adhesive properties of custom-designed non-oil permeable creep rubber waterproofing (NCRW) material. Direct tensile tests were used to assess the tensile characteristics of NCRW material aged in various modes. Pull-off-healing tests were used to assess the adhesive and self-healing abilities of NCRW material treated with various aging modes to various slabs under various test situations. Fluorescence tests and infrared spectroscopy were also used to explore the aging mechanism of NCRW material. The results showed that NCRW material can offer good self-healing and anti-aging capabilities, as well as great tensile and adhesive properties, so it can meet the needs of airport pavement use. As a result, NCRW material is advised to be used in the airport pavement joints.

Application of Steel-Fiber-Reinforced Self-Stressing Concrete in Prefabricated Pavement Joints

Prefabricated pavement, with its advantages of a high paving speed, low material consumption, low carbon emissions, high strength, and easy construction, has gradually been used to address issues associated with traditional cement pavement construction. However, even under the long-term combined effects of vehicle loads and environmental loads, the joints between pavement slabs remain prone to various problems. This paper proposes the use of steel-fiber-reinforced self-stressing concrete (SFRSSC) with a certain level of self-stress for joint pouring and connection to control the development of cracks in the joints and achieve seamless integration between the slabs. Additionally, the self-stress generated by SFRSSC is utilized to enhance the continuity of the prestressed design in precast slabs, thereby extending their service life. Through laboratory experiments and field tests, the self-stress magnitude, mechanical strength, and long-term applicability of SFRSSC were studied. The results indicate that SFRSSC can achieve self-stress levels of over 7 MPa under standard curing conditions, but the values decrease significantly when removed from the standard curing environment. SFRSSC exhibits a compressive strength of over 60 MPa and a flexural strength of over 9 MPa, both of which exceed the requirements of the relevant standards, making it suitable for use as a pavement joint material. During long-term monitoring in the field, SFRSSC demonstrates favorable expansion effects and high stability. The longitudinal expansion remains stable at 100 με, while the transverse expansion exhibits minor shrinkage, maintained at around 25.2 με. Therefore, the application of SFRSSC in assembly-type prestressed pavement joints shows high applicability.

Model-assisted clustering for automated operational modal analysis of partially continuous multi-span bridges

Long multi-span bridges represent a broad section of the civil roadway infrastructure. Despite being so common, their condition-based maintenance through vibration-based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has been scarcely investigated in the literature. The dynamic identification of such structures through Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) is especially challenging due to of their quasi-periodic nature and the common existence of weak inter-span coupling. Even when designed following an isostatic scheme, there always exists a certain degree of coupling between spans due to the continuity of the deck, the pavement and imperfect expansion joints. Hence, the modal poles of the spans typically appear as dense clusters with closely spaced frequencies and mode shapes with similar wavelengths, which significantly hinders the identification of physical poles through stabilization diagrams. In this light, this paper proposes a model-based machine learning approach to conduct and interpret the OMA results of partially continuous multi-span bridges. The proposed method is a hierarchical clustering approach that leverages on the analytical solution of the vertical free vibration response of multi-span girders with weak inter-span rotational coupling, allowing the estimation of the modal features of any bridge configuration ranging from simply supported to perfectly continuous conditions. Detailed parametric analyses and discussions are presented to appraise the correlation between the inter-span rotational coupling and the clustering of the modal poles of multi-span bridges, as well as the influence of damage conditions of varying severity and extension. On this basis, a model-based cut-off distance threshold for hierarchical clustering of stable poles is proposed to assist the automation of the global OMA of multi-span bridges. The developed formulation is tested in a real-world in-operation seven-spans reinforced concrete girder bridge, the Trigno V Bridge in Italy.

Estimating Load Transfer Efficiency for Jointed Pavements from TSD Deflection Velocity Measurements

Transverse joints are the weakest element of jointed pavements, and when these joints lack structural capacity, the onset of load-related distress is imminent. The most widespread measurement of the joints’ structural performance is the Load Transfer Efficiency Index (LTE), a ratio of the deflection of the two adjoining slabs. LTE can easily be assessed with a falling weight deflectometer, but this test procedure is not advisable for evaluation at the network level because of user safety concerns and because it can be excessively time-consuming. Traffic speed deflection devices like the traffic speed deflectometer (TSD) are suitable devices for network-level pavement structural evaluation. Yet, as of today, no interpretation technique to get structural health metrics for jointed pavements from TSD data has been published. In this paper, a backcalculation scheme based on slab theory is proposed to estimate the joints’ LTE from TSD deflection velocity measurements. The backcalculation problem formulation and its numerical solution using fast procedures are described in detail. The approach is tested with TSD data collected on the MnROAD test track. Overall, it was found that the backcalculation converges to reasonable estimates of the pavement structural properties and can furnish LTE estimates for most transverse joints from 5 cm-resolution TSD data, all at a reasonable computational cost. This allows for corridor-wide LTE assessment of a pavement’s joints using TSD measurements.

Airfield concrete pavement joint detection network based on dual-modal feature fusion

To solve the problem of inaccurate positioning of airfield pavement concrete joint and misalignment quantification, this study proposes an airfield concrete pavement joint detection network based on dual-modal feature fusion (ACJD-DFF) and a misalignment quantification method. First, outlier cleaning and row-level distortion correction are proposed to improve the quality of 3D data. Subsequently, data from two modalities are fused to create a dual-modal feature fusion matrix dataset. An ACJD-DFF is proposed to accomplish the positioning of the concrete joint by integrating positioning coordinate optimization. Finally, by mapping the accurate joint positioning coordinate by ACJD-DFF, the misalignment quantification of the concrete joint is constructed. The results show that the ACJD-DFF performs better than the state-of-the-art methods. The mAP@0.5 and Recall reached 96.38%, 91.4%. The average error of misalignment quantification is 4.333%. These methods have been applied in routine airfield pavement monitoring and are important for later detection of concrete joint distress.

Research on the creation of a joint filler on the basis of a trailed tractor

This article is dedicated to the development of a joint filler for cracks in asphalt concrete pavement, as well as for expansion joints in cement concrete pavement. The article presents the choice of unified units and units of the joint filler unit being developed for cracks in asphalt concrete pavement and for expansion joints in cement concrete pavement. Some methods for calculating the main parameters of the created joint filler are presented. In addition, a suitable prototype of a joint filler, cracks in the asphalt concrete pavement and expansion joints in the cement concrete pavement were selected from several types.

Conducting experimental studies of cement concrete pavement joints

To increase the life of roads in our Republic, several reforms are being carried out to operate roads with high strength and efficiently use available materials. Experience in constructing cement concrete roads shows that, over time, elevations of several millimeters can form between the slabs. The formation of disturbances hurts the longitudinal plane of the carriageway. It increases the driving resistance, makes the movement of vehicles uncomfortable, and causes the vehicles to oscillate. This increases the load on the roadway. Therefore, the study and development of recommendations for forming a shift between cement concrete paving slabs are relevant today. A study of negative changes (formation of steps) of the cement concrete pavement from dry-hot climatic conditions and over time in longitudinal, transverse compression, transverse expansion, floating, false, and working seams is presented. The results were obtained on 315320 km of highway A 380 “Guzor-Bukhara-Nukus-Beyneu” by measuring the heights and subsidence of the plates of transverse expansion joints with an electronic caliper and protractor. Using a mobile laboratory machine, “Ford Terrassa”, the longitudinal smoothness of the coating of this object was determined, and the results were obtained. Then a correlation plot of the effect of variation between plates (steps) on the smoothness of the coating (IRI) was plotted.

Use of ultrasonic tomography for the assessment of critical aspects of doweled joints in concrete pavements

The critical (design) parameters to be controlled for concrete pavements construction, in addition to the concrete strength, are slab`s thicknesses and doweled bars position at contraction joints, as they affect hugely structural performance, and, if not properly built may cause early ruptures. Construction compliance of such parameters is nowadays assessed through nondestructive techniques (NDT), such as ultrasonic low-frequency waves. Alignments of inserted doweled bars at contraction joints are analyzed herein for actual slabs as well as how thickness affects such position. Tests were carried out over an airport hangar apron after it has been built. Twenty-five concrete slabs were assessed using ultrasonic tomography allowing to verify disconformities of thicknesses and bars vertical and horizontal misalignments, with fair accuracy on measuring deviation angles of bars.

Deep learning-based detection of tie bars in concrete pavement using ground penetrating radar

ABSTRACT Detection of the tie bars in concrete pavement has been a challenging task. To address the purpose, ground penetrating radar (GPR) was used to acquire a large amount of image data along the longitudinal construction joints of plain concrete pavement in the field. The GPR image data was filtered to construct the dataset, containing 2185 tie bar reflected waves in 670 GPR images. Then, the YOLO series models, as the deep learning algorithms applied in inspecting the tie bars from GPR images, were well trained with the GPR training and validation sets. The comprehensive detection accuracy of the YOLOv4 model outperforms the YOLOv3, YOLOv3-tiny, and YOLOv4-tiny models in the test set. The mAP@0.5 value of the YOLOv4 model can reach 99.74%. All the signatures of tie bars in the testing GPR images, no matter whether they are incomplete, compressed, blurry with missing signal, or strong background noise, can be correctly and completely anchored using the bounding box based on the YOLOv4 model. Meanwhile, the detection speed of the YOLOv4 model for GPR data video is 50.8 frames per second. Therefore, the YOLOv4 model is reliable for automatically detecting the tie bars from GPR data in real-time.

Mechanical Behavior of Doweled Joints in Concrete Pavements: A Review

Dowel bars in concrete pavements can effectively improve the performance of joints as well as the overall performance of pavements. This paper reviewed the mechanical behavior, structural numerical simulation analysis, testing study of doweled joints in concrete pavements, and the research work on the alternative dowel bars. The influences of dowel bar configuration, diameter, spacing, misalignment, rust, and the bonding between the surrounding concrete on the performance of doweled joints were also discussed in this paper. Limitations of theoretical research and test methods were mentioned after reviewing these aspects of dowel bars, indicating the direction for future research on doweled joints in concrete pavements.

Study on the Structural Performance of UHPC Pavement and Hinge Joint Reinforcement for Hollow Slab Girder Bridges

To address the problem of structural performance degradation caused by hinged joints and pavement damage, we utilized actual engineering to conduct a construction study on the overall replacement of pavement and hinge joint reinforcement in ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) hollow slab girder bridges. A replacement and reinforcement design was developed and reconstruction was undertaken. By using UHPC and reinforcement bars, the adjacent slab girders were designed to work together under specific construction process guarantees for the characteristics of UHPC. The corresponding interface treatment and a combination of planting bars and steel mesh were necessary. According to the strain and deflection monitoring results, the overall performance of the bridge after pavement and hinge joint reinforcement was verified. The strain amplitude of the reinforcement was approximately 10 με, and that of the concrete was approximately 5 με. The deflection difference of the adjacent girder was similar, which proved that the hinge joints connect girders and transfer force effectively. All the results clearly demonstrated the positive overall effect of the UHPC replacement method. The conclusions could provide a reference for the reinforcement and reconstruction of similar projects.