With the development of Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (M-EPDG) as a new pavement design tool, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) are now considered to be more important design parameter to estimatingpavement performance including cracking, faulting, and IRI. This study was developed to measure typical CTE values of PCC pavements with various aggregates used in Louisiana, and to investigate the relationship between CTE and other critical variables such as aggregate types, age of concrete, amount of course aggregate in mixture, relative humidity, and concrete mechanical properties. AASHTO TP 60 was used for measuring concrete CTE. CTE tests and mechanical property tests were performed at different ages to provide input data for M-EPDG. From the analysis of measured data, it was found that aggregate types, coarse aggregate proportion, and relative humidity have a significant influence on CTE. This finding was confirmed with a statistical analysis (ANOVA). Some insights to improve PCC pavement analysis under non-linear temperature and moisture gradients are presented.
Abstract