Effects of Excessive Pavement Joint Opening and Freezing on Sealants
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 129, Issue 4
Abstract
The primary purposes of joint sealing in jointed concrete pavements are to minimize moisture infiltration through the joints, to reduce moisture-related distress (such as pumping), and to prevent the intrusion of incompressible material into joints to minimize pressure-related distress (such as spalling). However, the dilemma of whether “to seal or not to seal” has frequently arisen since the benefit of improvement in pavement performance with joint sealing could not be clearly demonstrated in a number of previous studies. Premature failure of sealant has been considered as a major cause of the ineffectiveness of joint seal. Poor construction quality and material properties of sealant have been considered as problems that induce the premature failure of joint seal. In this study, other causes, which are related to the shortcomings of the AASHTO joint seal design method, which may induce premature failure of joint seal, are addressed. The first cause is in situ joint openings larger than AASHTO predictions. Variability of joint openings in a given pavement section, including erratic large openings at a considerable portion of joints, has been discussed. High chances of adhesion-type failure are plausibly related with such erratic large openings. The relationship between sealant damage and the ratio of in situ maximum joint opening to permissible sealant elongation was demonstrated in this study based on the observations from 90 joints in 16 jointed concrete long term performance pavement special pavement studies (LTPP SMP) sites. The second cause is joint freezing (defined as joints showing no movement). At frozen joints, joint seals are likely to be redundant, and a waste of money. A method for joint seal design with survival criteria is suggested in this study. In this model, joint openings are estimated based on the Lee-Stoffels model. The Lee-Stoffels model is a probabilistic model that can predict the magnitudes of joint opening with its probabilities. The joint seal designs for 16 LTPP SMP sites, based on this survival model, indicated that some sections should have sealant-type changed, to permit more elongation with the given joint reservoir, whereas other sections do not need joint seal.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO). (1986). “AASHTO guide for design of pavement structures 1986.” Washington, D.C.
Bodocsi, A., Minkarah, I., and Rajagopal, S. A. (1993). “Analysis of horizontal movements of joint and cracks in portland cement concrete pavements.” Transportation Research Record 1392, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C.
Darter, M. I., and Barenberg, E. J. (1977). Design of zero maintenance plain concrete pavement, Vol. II—Design manual, FHWA-RD-77-112, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.
Hall, K. T., and Crovetti, J. A. (2000). “LTPP data analysis: Relative performance of jointed plain concrete pavement with sealed and unsealed joints.” NCHRP Web Document 32 (Project SP20-50[2]), National Cooperative Highway Research Program.
Hawkins, B. K., Ioannides, A. M., and Minkarah, I. A. (2000). “To seal or not to seal: Construction of a field experiment to resolve an age-old dilemma.” Transportation Research Board 79th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
Hoerner, T. E., Tarr, S. M., Darter, M. I., and Okamoto, P. A. (1999). Guide to developing performance-related specifications for PCC pavements, Vol. III, FHWA-RD-98-171, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.
Lee, S. W. (2000). “Horizontal joint movements in rigid pavements.” PhD thesis, Pennsylvania State Univ., Univ. Park, Penn.
Lee, S. W. (2001). “Behavior of concrete slab under frictional drag.” J. Civ. Eng., 5(2).
Lee, S. W., and Stoffels, S. M. (2000). “Analysis of in-situ joint movement in rigid pavement.” Transportation Research Board 79th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
McGhee, K. H. (1995). “Design, construction, and maintenance of PCC pavement joints.” NCHRP Synthesis of Highway Practice 211.
Minkarah, I., Cook, J. P., McDonough, J. F., and Jaghoory, S.(1982). “Effect of different variables on horizontal movement on concrete pavement.” ACI J., SP-70.
Morian, D. A., and Stoffels, S. M. (1999). “Evaluation of rigid pavement joint seal movement.” Transportation Research Board 78th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
Poblete, M., Salsilli, R., Valenzuela, R., Bull, A., and Sparatz, P. (1988). “Field evaluation of thermal deformations in undoweled PCC pavement slabs.” Transportation Research Record No. 1207, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C.
Shober, F. S. (1997). “The great unsealing: A prospective on portland cement concrete joint sealing.” Transp. Res. Rec., 1597.
Yu, H. T., Smith, K. D., Darter, M. I., Jiang, J., and Khazanovich, L. (1998). Performance of concrete pavement, Vol. III—Improving concrete pavement performance, FHWA-RD-95-111, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 7, 2001
Accepted: Apr 9, 2002
Published online: Jun 13, 2003
Published in print: Jul 2003
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.