ISEC 08


EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF MISALIGNED TIE BAR EFFECTS ON PCC PAVEMENT LONGITUDINAL JOINTS

NADIM WEHBE, WALKER OLSON


Abstract

Jointed Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements are widely used for roadways construction. Inspection of PCC pavements revealed that it is common for tie bars across pavement longitudinal joints to be misaligned. A misaligned tie bar could inhibit the tie bars ability to provide load transfer across the joint and to prevent excessive joint opening. An experimental research study was performed to determine the effect of misaligned tie bars on the performance of pavement longitudinal joints. The experimental program consisted of testing 35 slab specimens that represented pavement sections with one tie bar placed across a joint. The test matrix included aligned tie bar configuration and four different misalignment configurations. Specimens with aligned tie bar configuration served as control specimens. The misaligned tie bar cases were vertical translation, vertical skew, longitudinal translation, and horizontal translation. For each misalignment configuration, four different misalignment magnitudes were investigated. The experimental results showed that tie bars with vertical translation, vertical skew, and longitudinal translation had negligible effects on the performance of the longitudinal joint. However, tie bars with horizontal skew resulted in reduced joint performance when compared to the aligned tie bar case.

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