TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of zero-stress temperature prediction model for Portland cement concrete pavements
AU - Yeon, Jung Heum
AU - Choi, Seongcheol
AU - Won, Moon C.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research described in this paper was sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in cooperation with Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) under the research Projects 5-9026, 0-5482, and 5-4035. The support from TxDOT is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank the support and valuable comments provided by Dr. Soojun Ha at the Center for Transportation Research (CTR) at The University of Texas at Austin.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - The current mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG) postulates that zero-stress temperature (ZST) has substantial effects on the behavior and performance of Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements. To date, the only available ZST prediction model for PCC pavements is the one proposed by the MEPDG, which was quite simplified with a function of only two input variables: cementitious content and mean monthly temperature for the month of construction. In this study, the feasibility of the current ZST prediction model in the MEPDG was assessed by comparing the ZSTs evaluated from a series of field tests with the ones estimated from the MEPDG model. In order to find ZSTs in actual PCC pavements, accurate evaluations of early-age concrete stress developments were essential. To achieve this aim, non-stress cylinders (NCs), which directly measure stress-independent strain in the field concrete structures, were employed. Once the stress-dependent strain history was estimated based on the measured total and stress-independent strain histories, it was converted to the stress history using a step-by-step numerical method considering creep and modulus developments of concrete. The results of this study showed that about 4.5-7.7 °C of differences existed between the measured and predicted ZST values. This finding strongly suggests a need for development of a more advanced ZST prediction model with reasonable assumptions and diverse parameters.
AB - The current mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG) postulates that zero-stress temperature (ZST) has substantial effects on the behavior and performance of Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements. To date, the only available ZST prediction model for PCC pavements is the one proposed by the MEPDG, which was quite simplified with a function of only two input variables: cementitious content and mean monthly temperature for the month of construction. In this study, the feasibility of the current ZST prediction model in the MEPDG was assessed by comparing the ZSTs evaluated from a series of field tests with the ones estimated from the MEPDG model. In order to find ZSTs in actual PCC pavements, accurate evaluations of early-age concrete stress developments were essential. To achieve this aim, non-stress cylinders (NCs), which directly measure stress-independent strain in the field concrete structures, were employed. Once the stress-dependent strain history was estimated based on the measured total and stress-independent strain histories, it was converted to the stress history using a step-by-step numerical method considering creep and modulus developments of concrete. The results of this study showed that about 4.5-7.7 °C of differences existed between the measured and predicted ZST values. This finding strongly suggests a need for development of a more advanced ZST prediction model with reasonable assumptions and diverse parameters.
KW - Early-age concrete stress
KW - Environmental loading
KW - Field test
KW - Portland cement concrete pavement
KW - Zero-stress temperature
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84871109994&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.10.013
DO - 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.10.013
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84871109994
VL - 40
SP - 492
EP - 500
JO - Construction and Building Materials
JF - Construction and Building Materials
SN - 0950-0618
ER -