Strain-based equivalent temperature gradient in concrete pavement and comparison with other quantification methods

Abstract

It is well known that temperature along the depth of concrete pavement slabs is highly nonlinearly distributed. Utilising appropriate methods is crucial for quantifying an equivalent temperature gradient and the associated curling and stress calculations. The existing methods to obtain a temperature gradient are either simply by subtracting the bottom surface temperature from the top surface temperature (ΔT_top-bottom) or by converting the nonlinear temperature distribution to an equivalent temperature difference (ΔT_eq) based on the measured temperature distribution. None of the above methods are based on the strain which is the direct cause of slab curling. This study measures the strain development at different depths of field-instrumented concrete pavement slabs. A new strain-based quantification method for an equivalent temperature gradient (ΔT_strain) is developed based on the field strain measurements. The quantified ΔT_strain is then compared to ΔT_top-bottom and ΔT_eq. Their validity is verified by the field-measured slab-curling data. The newly developed strain-based method provides an alternative way for the temperature-associated performance evaluation of the concrete pavement slab.

Keywords:

• concrete pavement
• curling
• equivalent temperature gradient
• nonlinear temperature gradient
• strain measurement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.