Faulting Prediction Model for Design of Concrete Pavement Structures

Faulting is considered as a major distress type in jointed concrete pavements. The effects of faulting have implications on the pavement, both structurally and in terms of serviceability. Faulting if not maintained in a timely manner can also lead to other distresses and impose considerable repair costs. Several factors play a role in the complex process associated with faulting. Traffic loads and layer stiffness, strength, and thicknesses are important, as well as other factors, such as the presence of water underneath the slab as it may be associated with the potential for rainfall are factors to be addressed in design. This paper presents a design process for predicting erosion-affected distress that occurs in concrete pavements using mechanistic parameters such as shear stress, erosion resistance of sublayer, and deformation. This mechanistic-empirical process also considers key climate effects in terms of the number of wet days. This process is embroidered within a computer program that analyzes a concrete pavement structurally and predicts the erosion and faulting at the slab joints. This program is capable of being calibrated with field performance or laboratory erosion data. Field data were used to validate the model's outcomes. Results show that the model fits well with the field data and can be implemented for design and maintenance management purposes.