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Studies On The Distress Evaluation And Repair Strategies For Concrete Pavements

Posted on:2008-12-10Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Z M WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1102360278965479Subject:Road and Railway Engineering
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Over the past years, the construction of large amount of high-class highway concrete pavements has made great contributions to the progress of the national and local economies. However, intensive pavement repair and rehabilitation has been resulted in due to the concentrated construction of concrete pavements over a short time period. In addition, premature pavement distresses have become prevalent nationwide due to insufficient design theories, construction experiences, and quality control. As a result, the evaluation and repair of concrete pavement distresses have become an urgent issue.It has long been recognized that the many variables, such as concrete material properties, pavement responses to vehicle loading, environmental effects, and pavement distresses, are random variables and exhibit the typical fuzzy features. With the fuzzy random theories, this paper develops a model and membership functions for evaluating concrete pavement distresses. Furthermore, this paper investigates the use of the fuzzy multi-objective decision-making methods in concrete pavement overlay design and presents the strategies and measures for concrete pavement repair and rehabilitation.In order to collect realistic information on pavement distresses and conditions, this paper investigates the classification of concrete pavement distresses and provides the criteria for pavement distress classification based on pavement serviceability. The survey on pavement distress information was conducted by utilizing the stratified random sampling theories, i.e., a method that combines the random sampling design and field selection by considering the observable features of pavement distresses. It is of importance to filtering the raw data for the purpose of pavement overall evaluation. This paper develops the weight functions for evaluating individual distresses by taking into account the opinions and rating from the expert panel. In particular, this paper provides a data-processing (i.e., the weight functions by discounting) method for determining pavement condition index (PCI). This method has been used in the author's real life work and proved to be simple, effective, and realistic.This paper conducts the first work of its kind to apply the fuzzy random theories to the evaluation of pavement distresses. It is widely accepted that the failure of pavement serviceability is equivalent in nature to the failure of pavement structure. Therefore, this paper develops a fuzzy random failure model for assessing pavement serviceability. Based on the typical pavement sections experiencing various distresses and the fuzzy evaluation field for approximating the fuzzy distresses membership, this paper utilizes the bell-shaped membership functions. This paper also conducts pioneer work to apply the multi-objective decision-making methods to the concrete pavement overlay design. Pavement overlay design is a function of the existing pavement, environmental issues, pavement structure, and costs. The conventional linear operation method is not workable due to the fact that some of these variables cannot be quantified. As a result, it is natural to utilize the multi-objective decision-making methods so as to avoid subjective decisions. Finally, this paper investigates the practical and efficient repair measures and techniques for local distresses, such as subbase stabilization, cracking treatment, compatibility between fresh and old concrete.The work presented in this paper is the results of a long time study. In the process of conducting this study, the author has utilized its results and findings to three secondary highways and one freeway. It has been shown that the fuzzy random evaluation method is appropriate and the modified PCI method is valid. In addition, the pavement distress survey method, pavement distress classification, and pavement distress membership function by discounting are appropriate. The measures and treatment techniques for concrete pavement local distresses are realistic and implementable.
Keywords/Search Tags:Concrete pavement, Distress, Evaluation, Fuzzy random theories, Fuzzy multi-objective decision-making, Membership function
PDF Full Text Request
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