Temperature Effects on Cellular Rigid Pavement Compared to Flat Slabs

Temperature effects on rigid pavements have been shown to be significant fatigue contributors in combination with stresses produced by load, particularly at slab corners. A construction method for rigid pavement utilizing waste plastic forms to create dome-shaped cells in an orthogonal array was analyzed for stresses resulting from the application of a standard highway equivalent single axle load (ESAL). In this paper, cellular rigid pavement (CRP) is analyzed to compare temperature effects using the finite-element method. Bottom temperature tensile stresses are significantly lower for CRP than for the comparable solid slab, and in combination with load tensile stresses, vary from slightly higher to very much lower. Top tensile stresses due to temperature exceed the slab strength in the solid slab while top stresses are not significant in the CRP slab. The application of CRP appears to mitigate to a considerable extent the fatigue effect of temperature stresses in pavement of equal thickness to that of solid slabs and may, in combination with load stress, result in pavement with equal or greater fatigue life.