Impact of the interaction between structural, environmental, and loading factors on rigid pavement responses

This dissertation focused on the impact of the interaction between structural, environmental, and loading factors on mechanistic responses of rigid pavements. Computed through the mechanistic analysis approach, the pavement responses could be linked to rigid pavement performance. Therefore, this study established the understanding of the impact of the interaction between such factors on mechanistic responses, captured through an extensive parametric study. Without sacrificing the quality of the final results, this study employed several strategies to reduce the size of the experimental matrix to a practical number of 43,092 finite element runs.; Based on the parametric study results, the insight into the impact of the interaction between various parameters on pavement stresses was established. Understanding the mechanistic behavior of the pavement provides an indirect connection to a better comprehension of pavement performance. The increase in base/subbase thickness resulted in a reduction in stress magnitude with diminishing effect as the slab thickness increases. While lateral support condition had a significant effect on loading stress magnitude, its effect on thermal stress magnitude appeared to be insignificant as shown in the figure. An increase in the magnitude of modulus of subgrade reaction resulted in a reduction in stress magnitude with diminishing effect as the slab thickness increased. An increase in the magnitude of modulus of subgrade reaction resulted in an increase in the magnitude of thermal stress as the combined stress magnitudes were compared to the loading stress magnitudes. When combined with thermal stress, an interactive effect between thermal strain gradient and joint spacing on combined loading and thermal stress was observed. The results suggested that a more complex axle group should result in a lower pavement stress magnitude. However, the results did not account for the interaction between axle spacing and joint spacing.; This study also included a development of interpolation schemes to predict stresses in jointed concrete pavements subjected to traffic and environmental loads. The interpolation schemes were developed based on the various design scenarios that reflect the current design practice. The interpolation schemes were found to be highly efficient in generating stresses for an unlimited number of scenarios, based on a limited number of finite element runs. Validation of the interpolation schemes was conducted by comparing the interpolated stresses to finite element analysis results.; Also, this study demonstrated that influence surfaces for rigid pavements could be successfully developed via a numerical procedure based on a series of finite element analyses and a multi-dimensional interpolation process. The extensive verification process used herein suggested that influence surfaces could precisely and accurately quantify pavement stresses under various loading conditions. Versatility of the influence surface technique for rigid pavements includes, but is not limited to, rapid pavement stress calculation, determination of critical load location, pavement stress history, and investigation of the interaction between load configuration and structural feature. The use of this technique is clearly more effective and practical than the direct application of the finite element method.