The Influence of CTE on Jointed Concrete Pavement Performance Based on M-E Rigid Pavement Analysis

Three typical Florida Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement mix designs have been evaluated to capture the input requirements for the new Mechanistic-Empirical Rigid Pavement Design Guide (M-E RPDG). The essential engineering properties were experimentally determined for all required maturity levels, with an emphasis on the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) according to AASHTO TP-60 test protocol. Traffic loads, environmental conditions, structural parameters, and analysis/acceptance criteria were defined on account of local requirements. Due to the introduced hierarchy system, nine diverse JPCP models were established and iteratively idealized for PCC top layer thickness. The results demonstrated that cracking is the critical performance criterion for Florida JPCP. Moreover, top-down fatigue damage was isolated to be the controlling failure mechanism. Based on the nine Florida pavement models, a sensitivity matrix was developed to account for CTE as a control variable. Despite wide-ranging PCC, CTE, and thickness properties, clear resemblances were exposed for all scenarios under evaluation. With regard to CTE variation, the JPCP analysis according to the AASHTO M-E RPDG is minimally sensitive to faulting, sensitive to bottom-up damage, and extremely sensitive to top-down damage, cracking, and smoothness/roughness.