Analysis of concrete pavement responses to temperature and wheel loads measured from intrumented slabs

The structural response of jointed plain concrete pavement slabs was evaluated using data obtained from instrumented slabs. The instrumented slabs were a part of newly constructed jointed plain concrete overlay that was constructed on existing asphalt concrete pavement on I-70 in Colorado, near the Kansas-Colorado border. The instrumentation consisted of dial gauges for measuring curling deflections at the slab corner and longitudinal edge and surface-mounted strain gauges for measuring load strains at the longitudinal edge at midslab. The through-thickness temperature profiles in the pavement slabs were also measured at 30-min intervals during the field test. Analysis of the field data showed that the instrumented slabs had a considerable amount of built-in upward curling and that concrete slabs on a stiff base can act completely independent of the base or monolithically with the base, depending on the loading condition. The built-in upward curling of the slabs has the same effect as negative temperature gradients. These findings suggest that the effects of temperature gradients on the critical edge stresses may not be as great as previously thought and that the comer loading, in some cases, may produce more critical conditions for slab cracking. Another important finding of this study is that a physical bond between pavement layers is not required to obtain a bonded response from concrete pavements.