Abstract
Effective maintenance of concrete pavement requires precise evaluation of load transfer at transverse joint. The load transfer is evaluated from the load transfer efficiency (LTE) that is simply calculated from deflections at loaded and unloaded slabs. In this study, FWD deflections are simulated for various elastic moduli of pavement layers in the degradation process with three dimensional finite element models (3DFEM) to create a database of FWD deflection. If a set of FWD deflections measured at a joint is given, the layer moduli and degradation stage of the joint can be identified from the database. The result of the back-calculation helps engineers to determine a proper rehabilitation measure. The method was validated on a 15 year old concrete pavement. The validation revealed the possibility that the degradation stage of a joint can be detected directly from LTE and measured deflections without the backcalculation. It was also investigated how the degree of joint degradation affects the stress of concrete slab.
