PURPOSES : In this study, the propriety of expansion joint spacing of airport concrete pavement was examined by using weather and material characteristics.
METHODS: A finite element model for simulating airport concrete pavement was developed and blowup occurrence due to temperature increase was analyzed. The critical temperature causing the expansion of concrete slab and blow up at the expansion joint was calculated according to the initial vertical displacement at the joint. The amount of expansion that can occur in the concrete slab for 20 years of design life was calculated by summing the expansion and contraction by temperature, alkali-silica reaction, and drying shrinkage. The effective expansion of pavement section between adjacent expansion joints was calculated by subtracting the effective width of expansion joint from the summation of the expansion of the pavement section. The temperature change causing the effective expansion of pavement section was also calculated. The effective expansion equivalent temperature change was compared to the critical temperature, which causes the blowup, according to expansion joint spacing to verify the propriety of expansion joint applied to the airport concrete pavement.
RESULTS: When an initial vertical displacement of the expansion joint was 3mm or less, the blowup never occurred for 300m of joint spacing which is used in Korean airports currently. But, there was a risk of blow-up when an initial vertical displacement of the expansion joint was 5mm or more due to the weather or material characteristics.
CONCLUSIONS: It was confirmed that the intial vertical displacement at the expansion joint could be managed below 3mm from the previous research results. Accordingly it was concluded that the 300m of current expansion joint spacing of Korean airports could be used without blowup by controling the alkali-silica reaction below its allowable limit.