PURPOSES : High temperatures induce excessive expansion in pavements, thus causing the closure of contraction joints between expansion joints. This results in the integration of slabs within the expansion joints into a unified slab. Compressive forces are generated owing to the friction that ensues between the unified slab and lower base layer. As the integrated slab expands and exceeds the allowable width of the expansion joint, the end restraint generates an additional compressive force. The escalating force, which reaches a critical threshold, induces buckling, thus compromising stability and causing blow-up incidents, which poses a significant hazard to road users. The unpredictable nature of blow-up incidents render their accurate prediction challenging because the compressive force within the slab must be predicted and the threshold for blow-up occurrence must be determined. METHODS : In this study, a GWNU blow-up model was developed to predict both the compressive force and period of blow-up incidents in jointed concrete pavements. The climate conditions, pavement structure, materials, and expansion joints were considered in this model. In the first stage of the model, the time at which the integrated slab expanded and surpassed the allowable width of the expansion joint was determined, and the compressive force was calculated. Subsequently, the compressive force within the integrated slab, considering both the end restraints and friction, was predicted. A large-scale blow-up test was performed to measure the blow-up force based on changes in the geometric imperfections. The measured blow-up force was adopted as the blow-up occurrence threshold, and the point at which the predicted compressive force within the slab exceeded the blow-up force was identified as the blow-up occurrence time. RESULTS : Using the GWNU blow-up model, the blow-up occurrence on the Seohean Expressway in Korea is predicted in the presence or absence of the alkali-silica reaction (ASR). Analysis is conducted using the expansion joint spacing and width as variables. As the expansion joint spacing increases, blow-up occurs sooner, and as the width increases, only the expansion joint life decreases. When applying an expansion joint spacing of 300 m and a width of 100 mm under an ASR with 99.9% TTPG reliability, the sum of the expansion joint life and blow-up occurrence time is 16 years. CONCLUSIONS : In the case of jointed concrete pavements where ASR occurred, installing an expansion joint spacing of 300 m and a width of 100 mm does not satisfy the design life of 20 years, and the expansion joint width minimally affect the blow-up occurrence time. To prevent blow-up incidents, a spacing of less than 300 m for the expansion joint is recommended. Based on the analysis results, the blow-up occurrence time and location can be predicted from the characteristics of the installed expansion joint, through which blow-up incidents can be prevented via preliminary maintenance.

블로우업이 발생하는 구간에 ASR이 발생하고 있지만, 한국도로공사는 재료팽창인 ASR을 고려하지 않고, 콘크리트 팽창량을 계산하 여 팽창줄눈 설치간격을 제시하고 있다. 또한, 블로우업은 일종의 좌굴현상이므로 슬래브 두께에 따라 팽창줄눈 간격을 제시할 필요가 있다. 따라서 본연구는 재료팽창과 슬래브 두께를 고려하여 팽창줄눈 간격을 제시하고자 한다. 팽창량 계산시, 재료변형률과 지역별 온도와 건조수축을 고려하였으며, 이를 동등한 팽창을 유발하는 온도상승량으로 변환하는 식을 도출하였다. 기준온도를 정하기 위해 실제 현장데이터를 팽창량 식에 대입하여 온도상승량으로 변환하였으며, 이를 블로우업을 모사한 콘크리트 포장 모형의 유한요소해석 결과를 이용하여 결과값을 비교하였다. 안전설계를 위해 더 작은 온도 값인 블로우업 구조해석 결과 값 중 안전온도를 블로우업이 일 나는 기준으로 선정하였으며, 안전 온도를 넘지 않은 지역별 슬래브 두께에 따른 최대 팽창줄눈 간격을 제시했다. 한국도로공사가 제 시하고 있는 기준과 비교한 결과, 일부 지역은 한국도로공사에서 제시하고 있는 기준에 만족하지 않았다. ASR 변형률을 고려하여 슬 래브 두께에 따라 지역별로 팽창줄눈 간격을 제시하는 것이 블로우업 파손을 저감하고, 포장의 안정성을 향상시키는데 도움이 될 것 이라고 판단된다.

PURPOSES : Pavement growth (PG) of concrete pavement has been recognized as a major concern to highway and airport engineers as well as to road users for many years. PG is caused by the pressure generation in the concrete pavement as a result of a rise of the concrete temperature and moisture. PG could result in concrete pavement blowup and damage the adjacent or the nearby structures such as bridge structures. The amount of the PG is affected by the complicated interactions of numerous factors such as climatic condition, amounts of incompressible particles (IP) infiltration into the joints, pavement structure, and materials. Trigger temperature for pavement growth (TTPG) is defined as the concrete temperature when all transverse cracks or joints within the expansion joints completely close and generating a pressure in the pavement section. It is one of the most critical parameters to evaluate the potential of PG occurring in the pavement. Unfortunately, there are no available methods or guidelines for estimating TTPG. Therefore, this study aims to provide a methodology to predict TTPG of a concrete pavement section. METHODS : In this study, a method to evaluate the TTPG and its influencing factors using the field measured data of concrete pavement expansions is proposed. The data of the concrete pavement expansions obtained from the long-term monitoring of three concrete pavement sections, which are I-70, I-70N, and Md.458, in Maryland of United Stated, were used. The AASHTO equation to estimate the joint movement in concrete pavement was used and modified for the back-calculation of the TTPG value. A series of the analytical and numerical solutions presented in the literatures were utilized to predict the friction coefficient between the concrete slab-base and to estimate the maximum concrete temperature of these three pavement sections. RESULTS : The estimated maximum concrete temperature of these three pavement sections yearly exhibited relatively constant values, which range from 40 to 45 °C. The results of the back-calculation revealed that the TTPG of the I-70 and Md.58 sections decreased with time. However, the TTPG of the I-70N section tended to be relatively constant from the first year of the pavement age. CONCLUSIONS : The estimation of the TTPG for the three concrete pavement sections showed that the values of the TTPG gradually decreased although the yearly maximum concrete pavement temperature did not change significantly.

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.