The illinois department of transportation (idot) constructed 28 full-depth repairs with various dowel load-transfer system designs on i-70 in 1984. Design variables included dowel diameter, number of dowels per wheelpath, dowel anchor material, and the use of tie barsin lieu of dowels. Idot and the university of illinois monitored the faulting performance and loss of load-transfer efficiency of theserepairs through 1988, when the project was overlaid. In general, itappeared that greater quantities of larger-diameter dowels improvedleave-joint load-transfer efficiency; faulting improvements were less noticeable. Tied approach joints improved the load-transfer efficiency of both the approach and leave joints, presumably because repair movement was inhibited. The performance of repairs constructed using epoxy mortars was mixed. Repair leave joints generally performedmore poorly than approach joints and were determined to be criticalfor design puroses. Repair leave-joint faulting was modeled as a function of load-transfer efficiency. Traffic and other important variables could not be introduced because they were relatively constantover the data base. The model that was developed was shown to have applications in repair load-transfer system design. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1272, Pavement management and rehabilitation 1990.
Abstract