Unbound Materials:

Rigid Pavements

Slab on Bed of Springs:

Basis for Rigid Pavement Analysis

Winkler Springs

(Coduto, 1994)

1
Rigid Slab on Foundation

Reactive pressure depends

only on deflection at point
and not on deflections at
neighboring points.

No Shear Interaction!

k = Modulus of Subgrade Reaction

(Yoder and Witczak, 1974)

Measurement of k

Difficult--not a fundamental soil property

Value depends on:
Width/shape of loaded area
Position within the slab (confinement effects)
Time (fine-grained soils)

Can be measured in plate load tests

k function of plate size

2
k vs. Foundation Size

(Scott, 1981)

Terzaghi Suggestion:

2
B +1
k0 = k01
2B

k01 = Modulus of subgrade reaction from 1 ft. plate

B = Effective diameter of slab reaction area
B 15t , t = slab thickness

(Scott, 1981)

3
Typical k01 Values for Sands

(Scott, 1981)

Typical k01 Values for Clays

(Scott, 1981)

4
Relationship Between k and E,

Approximate!

Function of
Geometry

(Coduto, 1994)

Typical Values for k

(For Mat Foundations)

Divide by ~300 for pci

(Bowles, 1996)

5
 (Huang, 1993)

(Yoder and Witczak, 1974)

6
 (NCHRP 1-37A. 1999)

Portland Cement
Concrete

7
PCC Stress-Strain Behavior

~ Linear over range of interest

(NCHRP 1-37A, 1999)

Elastic Modulus for PCC

Measure static modulus directly (ASTM C469)
Determine from empirical relations:
Ec = 333/2(fc)1/2 (psi)
Ec = secant elastic modulus
= unit weight
fc = compressive strength

Typical values:
2 - 6 x 106 psi
14 - 42 Gpa

No significant loading rate or temperature effects

(NCHRP 1-37A, 1999)

8
Poissons Ratio for PCC

Measure directly (ASTM C469)

Typical values:
Range: 0.11 - 0.21
Most common: 0.15 - 0.18

Rigid pavement response not highly sensitive to

(NCHRP 1-37A, 1999)

Compressive Strength for PCC

Strength increases
over time

28 day strength
taken as fc

Admixtures (e.g.,
accelerators) affect
strength

Strength increase
over time will be
included in future
pavement design
guides
(NCHRP 1-37A, 1999)

9
Modulus of Rupture

More relevant measure of strength for pavements

MR = Extreme fiber tensile stress at failure

Problem: Specimen Preparation

(Bazant and Planas, 1998)

Indirect
Tension
Test
(Split Cylinder)

fst = Indirect Tensile Strength

(Yoder and Witczak, 1974)

10
MR vs. fst vs. fc

(NCHRP 1-37A, 1999)

Empirical Correlations for MR

MR = 7.5 fc0.5 (psi)

MR = 1.3 fst
MR = 43.5 EC + 488.5 (rehabilitation)
MR in psi
EC in 106 psi

(NCHRP 1-37A, 1999)

11
Coefficient of Thermal Expansion

Th = T

(NCHRP 1-37A, 1999)

Shrinkage

(NCHRP 1-37A, 1999)

12
PCC Fatigue Resistance

(Huang, 1993)

13