Direct Calculation of Pavement Joint Stiffness using Falling Weight Deflectometer Joint Load Tests

摘要

This paper describes a new method for directly calculating the apparent vertical shearstiffness of a pavement joint or crack feature (i.e. joint stiffness) using a falling weightdeflectometer load test performed over the joint/crack. Joint stiffness is the primary inputparameter, or constant, used by most finite element method (FEM) structural analysis softwarefor pavements to control how much load is transferred through joints between simulated concreteslabs. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been developing multi-slab FEManalysis tools for rigid pavement. Joint models used in FEM analysis tools for pavements needto be calibrated to reproduce real measured joint behaviors. The new FWD-based joint stiffnesscalculation procedure is a tool that enables these calibrations. The joint stiffness calculationprocedure is described in detail and some applications are presented. This technique was used aspart of a mechanistic site evaluation procedure performed at heavy-duty airfield rigid pavementsites as part of a study under the Innovative Pavement Research Foundation (IPRF) program incooperation with the FAA as project number IPRF-01-G-002-05-2: Joint Load Transfer inConcrete Airfield Pavements.TRB 2012 Annual Meeting Paper revised from original submittal.