Impact of elasticity of concrete on the design of jointed plain concrete pavement

In the design of long-lasting and reliable concrete pavement, it is essential to understand the response of Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP) under various parameters like material properties, temperature variations, soil subgrade modulus, and traffic loading (single, tandem, and tridem). JPCP is generally constructed with different grades of concrete depending on the design requirements. The modulus of elasticity increases with the increase in the grade of the concrete. This study focuses on the effect of varying design parameters, such as modulus of elasticity, density of concrete, slab thickness, soil subgrade strength, loading, etc. on the flexural stresses in JPCP. Finite element (FE) models were developed using ABAQUS and SAP2000 software to simulate the pavement under various loadings based on realistic field conditions. The developed FE model has been validated, and the impact of change in modulus of elasticity on critical flexural stresses was studied. Guidelines like IRC 58 (2015) considered the effect of self-weight while calculating the stresses. In this study, the impact of self-weight was also observed on the critical stresses. Stresses are observed to be increased significantly due to the use of higher grades of concrete. However, design guidelines like IRC 58 (2015), IRC SP 62 (2014), and PCA (1984) consider a constant modulus of elasticity for evaluating the stresses developed in the slab. The conclusions of the study have significant implications for designers to understand how design parameters influence stresses and design thickness requirements. Moreover, this study also introduced a novel equation based on FE analysis to estimate the stresses due to the self-weight of the slab.