United States Department of Transportation
ROSA P serves as an archival repository of USDOT-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by USDOT or funded partners.
As a repository, ROSA P retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
i
A Method for Estimating the Remaining Life of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements
-
1994-11-01
[PDF-937.33 KB]
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Edition:Interim
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:By presenting a method for estimating the remaining life of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP), this report provides a means for determining the optimum time to overlay such pavements. Previously, determinations of remaining pavement life relied solely on engineering judgment. And while subjective experience can often lead to satisfactory solutions, a standardized procedure - such as that provided by this study - will allow more objective assessments and, hence, more uniform results. To develop a new procedure for estimating remaining pavement life, we used a failure prediction model that uses punchouts as the major failure criterion. This model, later calibrated against CRC pavement data by the Center for Transportation Research, can be used to generate a failure curve for a given pavement. The failure curve describes the relationship between punchouts (failures) and equivalent single axle loads (ESAls). If a certain number of failures per mile (FPM) is specified as the indicator for a failed pavement, and if the current number of failures per mile is known, then the number of remaining ESALs the pavement will withstand can be determined from the failure curve. From the number of remaining ESALs, the amount of remaining pavement life can be calculated using an appropriate traffic model. The procedure summarized above was incorporated into the PAVLIF computer program. We used the program to run sample problems involving actual field data; the results from the samples compared favorably with actual observations. In one sample, PAVLIF predicted 6 years of remaining life for a CRC pavement section in Bowie County, TX. Another study of this same pavement section estimated a remaining life of 7 years, based on an extrapolation of the pavement's actual failure curve. Although PAVLIF produced favorable results for this sample (and for the other samples in this report), the program is calibrated only for certain types of pavements. Further testing and calibration of the program are required to expand its usefulness.
-
Format:
-
Funding:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
