Balance-Stiffness Design Concept and Prototype Structure of Rigid Pavement

Abstract:

Aiming at the early crack at the edges and corners in the design life of the traditional rigid pavement structure， based on the experiment result of the full-scale tests in FAA’s NAPTF CC1 and CC2， combined with the Westergaard theorical solution， a balance-stiffness design concept and a structural stiffness concept are proposed in this paper， that is， increasing the structural stiffness in the slab edges and slab corner， balancing them with the centroid of the slab approximately. According to the result of the full-scale test CC6， the effect of crack alleviating of this concept has been verified， and the rigid pavement with flexible base can also reach the same goal. The general form of the rigid pavement structure and a prototype structure considering engineer application has been proposed based on the balance-stiffness design concept. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for the balance stiffness design of rigid pavement structures.