MAPCRACKING IN CONCRETE PAVEMENTS AS INFLUENCED BY SOIL TEXTURES

PERFORMANCE SURVEYS OF 3,300 MILES OF RIGID PAVEMENTS IN INDIANA REVEALED AN OUTSTANDING CORRELATION BETWEEN THE COARSE AGGREGATE USED IN THE CONCRETE AND THE MAPCRACKING AND BLOWUP PERFORMANCE OF THE PAVEMENT. IT WAS ALSO NOTED IN THE PERFORMANCE SURVEYS, WHICH WERE OF A RECONNAISSANCE NATURE, THAT SOME DEGREE OF RELATIONSHIP EXISTED BETWEEN THE SEVERITY OF DETERIORATION OF PAVEMENTS CONSTRUCTED WITH INFERIOR AGGREGATES, THE TEXTURE OF THE SUBGRADE SOIL, AND THE FREEDOM OF THE SUBGRADE TO DRAIN. ACCORDINGLY, MORE DETAILED SURVEYS WERE MADE OF MANY OF THE PAVEMENTS SHOWING DISTRESS WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON THESE FEATURES. THE STUDIES WERE MADE TO OBTAIN PERTINENT LEADS TO THE REASON FOR THE AGGREGATE PERFORMANCE TO BE USED AS GUIDES IN DEVELOPING A LARGE-SCALE LABORATORY RESEARCH PROGRAM, AND TO DEVELOP DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION METHODS WHICH COULD BE USED AS STOP-GAP PROCEDURES IN THOSE INSTANCES WHERE QUESTIONABLE AGGREGATES MUST BE USED BECAUSE OF ECONOMIES, OR BECAUSE OF INADEQUATE TEST METHODS FOR IDENTIFICATION OF INFERIOR AGGREGATES. IT WAS FOUND THAT THOSE PAVEMENTS WITH UNIFORMLY POOR PERFORMANCE WERE LOCATED ON EITHER SILTY-CLAY SOILS OR ON SEMI-GRANULAR SOILS WITH A HIGH WATER TABLE. THOSE PROJECTS WHICH SHOWED A RANGE OF PERFORMANCE FROM EXTREMELY BAD TO REASONABLY GOOD WERE LOCATED ON A WIDE RANGE OF SOIL TYPES. DETAILED EXAMINATION OF FOUR OF THESE PROJECTS, COMPRISING 41 MILES OF PAVEMENTS CONSTRUCTED BETWEEN 1928 AND 1941 WITH FOUR DIFFERENT COARSE AGGREGATES, INDICATED THAT: (1) A STRIKING CORRELATION EXISTED BETWEEN PAVEMENT MAPCRACKING AND SOIL TEXTURE AND DRAINAGE POSITION; (2) THE MAPCRACKING ASSOCIATED IN INDIANA WITH THE USE OF INFERIOR COARSE AGGREGATES IN CONCRETE CAN BE MINIMIZED BY THE USE OF METHODS TO FACILITATE DRAINAGE; AND (3) IN A LABORATORY STUDY OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INFERIOR COARSE AGGREGATE, THE MOISTURE VARIABLE IS A PRIMARY FACTOR. /AUTHOR/

• Record URL:
  https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbproceedings/26/26-024.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vol 26, pp 286-301, FIGS, 7 TAB, 24 REF. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • SWEET, H S
  • Woods, K B
  • Woolley, W R
  • Shelburne, T E
  • Williams, G R
• Publication Date: 1947

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board Held at Washington, D.C. December 5-8, 1946
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Board Proceedings
  • Volume: 26
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Block cracking; Blowup (Pavements); Coarse aggregates; Concrete pavements; Drainage; Soils; Texture
• Old TRIS Terms: Pavement blowups; Soil texture
• Subject Areas: Geotechnology; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00207316
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 22 1972 12:00AM