IRC Rigid Pavement Design
Atul Narayan, S. P.
IIT Madras
September 17, 2015
Outline
Introduction
Thickness design
Joints, Reinforcement and Tie bar design
Dowel bar design
Subordinate learning objectives
To analyze the stress-strain distribution in pavements for given
loading conditions. 3
To estimate pavement distresses based on stresses and
strains in pavement structure. 3
To explain the effect of mechanical properties on pavement
behavior and performance. 3
To analyze the stresses and distresses caused by vehicle
loading. 3
To estimate the expected volume of traffic in design life.
General
The IRC design method is given in IRC 58: 2002
This design method is very similar to the design method of
Portland Cement Association.
Recommended design life is 30 years.
Pavement Analysis Method
Analysis is essentially conducted using the finite element
program - IITRIGID
Stresses may also be obtained using Westergaards solutions
Recommended critical loading condition is edge loading for
doweled pavements and corner loading for undoweled
pavements
IRC recommends a contact pressure of 0.8 MPa
IRC does not specify shape of contact area
Material Properties
Subgrade
Modulus of subgrade reaction should be determined as per IS
9214
Standard plate diameter for determining k is 75 cm
Smaller plate diameter of 30 cm may be used.
Conversion equation:
k75 = 0.5k30
k-value can also be determined from CBR through tables
provided in IRC 58.
(1)
Material Properties
Concrete
Modulus of rupture should be at least
S = Sc + Z
(2)
where Sc is the characterisitic strength used in the design, Z
is the single-tail normal deviate for reliability and is the
standard deviation.
For design, Sc of 4.5 MPa can be used.
Recommended elastic modulus and Poissons ratio are 30
GPa and 0.15 respectively
Recommended coefficient of thermal expansion is
10 106 /0 C
Traffic
Just like in IRC 37, IRC 58 recommends conducting axle-load
survey
An Axle-load distribution table is constructed from the data
IRC recommends multiplying axle loads by a Load Safety
Factor (LSF). Recommended value of LSF is 1.2.
Cumuluative number of axle-loads is given by
C=
365A{(1 + r )n 1}
r
There are no directional and lane distribution factor in use.
(3)
Traffic (cont.)
Not all axle loads occur at the edge of the slab. There is
vehicle wander.
For two-lane two-way highways, IRC conservatively
recommends 25% of the total axles (in both directions) be
used for determining fatigue life.
That is, 25% of the total axle load occurs at the edge of the
pavement. (PCA design method uses 6%)
For highways with multiple lanes each way, IRC recommends
25% of the total axle load in one direction.
Climate
Effect of moisture on
subgrade properties
are not considered
IRC recommends
temperature
differential for curling
stresses based on
location
Pavement Distresses
Fatigue Equation
For SR 0.55
For 0.45 SR 0.55
For SR 0.45
0.9718 SR
0.0828
3.268
4.2577
Nf = (
)
SR 0.4325
Nf = +
log Nf =
(4a)
(4b)
(4c)
Pavement Distresses
Erosion and pumping
Erosion is not considered in design method
The reason is that erosion is severe only for tandem axles and
tandem axles are rare in India
Erosion being smaller for single-axle loads does not mean
they are negligible.
Outline
Introduction
Thickness design
Joints, Reinforcement and Tie bar design
Dowel bar design
Procedure
1. Assume a thickness for the slab.
2. Divide the axle load distribution into axle groups
Create an axle group for every 2-ton interval for single axles
Create an axle group for every 4-ton interval for tandem axles
3. Take the mean axle load of the group and multiply it by LSF.
4. Determine the critical stress for each axle group using the
charts provided in IRC 58.
5. Determine Nfi , the number of repetitions to failure, for the
critical stresses.
6. Determine the expected number of axles in each axle group.
25% of these axles are expected to occur at the edge of the
pavement. (ni )
ni
7. Determine the damage caused by each axle group as
N fi
ni
8. Determine if the total damage
is less than 1.
Nfi
9. Determine design thickness by trial and error.
IRC Chart for critical stresses
Sample calculations
Sample calculations (cont.)
Sample calculations (cont.)
Sample calculations (cont.)
Sample calculations (cont.)
Sample calculations (cont.)
Class Problem
A particular highway section requires a new concrete pavement.
The daily truck traffic at the start of the design period is 1100
trucks and is expected to grow at 5% per annum. Traffic is
completely composed of single axles and composition is as shown
in the table below:
Load (tons)
7-9
9-11
11-13
13-15
15-17
17-19
19-21
Percentage
60.5
19.8
11.7
6.3
1.2
0.47
0.03
The modulus of rupture of the concrete is 45 kg/cm2 . The modulus
of subgrade reaction of the subgrade is 10 kg/cm2 . Use a load
Class Problem (cont.)
safety factor of 1.2. Design the thickness of the concrete
pavement.
Class Problem (cont.)
70
6 tons
8 tons
10 tons
12 tons
14 tons
16 tons
18 tons
20 tons
22 tons
24 tons
60
Flexural stress (kg/cm2 )
50
40
30
20
10
15
20
25
Slab thickness (cm)
30
35
Outline
Introduction
Thickness design
Joints, Reinforcement and Tie bar design
Dowel bar design
Reinforcements
Reinforcement is provided to the concrete slab to take tensile
stresses due to contraction.
Reinforcements are not for increasing structural capacity of
slab. (They do not assist in flexure)
They are provided at mid-depth of the slab.
Contraction causes tensile stresses in concrete due to friction
in the concrete-subgrade interface.
Total tensile force per unit width due to contraction is
c Lhfa
2
where c is the unit weight of concrete, L and h are the length
and thickness of the slab, respectively, and fa is the coefficient
of friction.
Reinforcements (cont.)
Assuming the diameter of the steel bars (usually in the range
of 6mm to 12 mm), the number of bars required per unit
length is calculated.
If the cross-sectional area of one bar is As , the number of
steel bars required per unit length is:
nbars =
c Lhfa
2As fs
(5)
where fs is the allowable stress in steel
The number of bars required along the width of the slab per
c Whfa
, where W is the width of the slab.
unit length is
2As fs
fa is usually taken as 1.5 and allowable stress is usually 66%
of yield strength.
If reinforcements are not provided, as with JPCP, concrete
should resist tensile stress.
Reinforcements (cont.)
Tensile stress in concrete, in the absence of reinforcement is
c =
c Lfa
2
(6)
Tie-bars
Tie-bars are provided along the longitudinal joint to hold the
slabs together.
Forces trying to separate the slabs are again the forces due to
contraction
The number of steel bars required per unit width if the
cross-sectional area of one bar is Ast is
Ast =
c Whfa
fs
since total force due to contraction actin on the tie bars is
c Whfa .
(7)
Tie-bars (cont.)
Tie-bars should be of adequate length to ensure sufficient
bonding between the tie-bar and concrete. (To prevent
pull-out failure)
Length of tie-bar is
t = 2(
At fs
)=
fs d
2
where At is the cross-sectional area of one tie-bar, is the
allowable bond stress, O is the bar perimeter and d is the
diameter of the bar.
Allowable bond stress is usually taken as 2.4MPa
(8)
IRC recommendations for tie-bars
Joints
Types of Joints
Contraction joint
Relieves tensile stresses caused by contraction
Expansion joint
Leaves room for concrete slabs to expand
Longitudinal joint
Separates slabs along the transverse direction
Construction joint
Point of separation between old and new slab
constructions
Contraction Joint Spacing
Joint spacing depends on
Tensile stresses due to contraction
Extent of increase in joint width
Presence of reinforcements
Change in joint width depends on slab length as well as
thermal and shrinkage properties:
L = L(e T + )
where e is the coefficient of thermal expansion, T is the
temperature decrease and is the shrinkage strain.
(9)
Contraction Joint Spacing (cont.)
Tensile force due to contraction is
length of the slab
c Lhfa
2
; it depends on the
Tensile force should be resisted by either the concrete or the
reinforcement
Spacing for JPCP is about 3 to 10 m and for JRCP, it is about
10 to 30 m.
Joint spacing is decided based on experience
IRC recommendations for joint spacing in JPCP
Contraction Joint Construction
A steel plate is placed upto a certain depth at the joint location
during construction and removed later.
Otherwise, concrete slab is sawed after construction to a
certain depth.
The gap is then sealed with a bituminous or polymer sealant
Cracks form over the rest of the depth due to vehicle loading
resulting in the formation of joint.
The cracked surfaces provide aggregate interlock for load
transfer.
Dowels are provided during construction; they cannot prevent
cracking and thus, cannot prevent joint formation
Contraction Joint before and after cracking
Source:pavementinteractive.org
Expansion Joints
Expansion Joints are provided to leave room for concrete
expansion
These joints prevent blow-up failure
Expansion joints are no longer used except on bridges
A good choice of aggregate, with low coefficient of thermal
expansion, makes expansion joints unnecessary
Outline
Introduction
Thickness design
Joints, Reinforcement and Tie bar design
Dowel bar design
Dowel Bars
Dowels are provided for transfer of load from one slab to
another
In the absence of dowels and aggregate interlock, corner
stress will be higher than edge stress
Dowel bar design is mostly based on experience
Primary mode of failure of dowel arrangement is by failure of
concrete below dowel due to excessive bearing stress.
IRC Recommended Dowel Size and Length
Recommended diamater is one-eighth the thickness of
pavement
Allowable Bearing Stress
The allowable bearing stress of concrete is
Fb = (
10.16 b
) fck
9.525
(10)
where b is the diameter of dowel bar in cm and fck is the
characteristic compressive strength of concrete. Fb and fck both
have the same units ([NL2 ])
Actual Bearing Stress due to load transfer by dowel bars
Maximum bearing stress due to a load on a dowel bar was
found by Friberg.
Bearing stress is determined by treating the dowel bar as a
beam and the concrete as a liquid (Winkler) foundation.
Pt
y0
d
2
Actual Bearing Stress due to load transfer by dowel bars
(cont.)
Maximum deflection of the concrete below the dowel is at the
edge of the slab. It is
y0 =
Pt (2 + z )
4 3 Ed Id
(11)
where Pt is the load on the dowel bar, z is the joint width, Ed
and Id are the elastic modulus and moment of inertia of the
dowel bar.
is the relative stiffness of dowel bar, similar to radius of
relative stiffness:
Kd
4Ed Id
(12)
where K is the modulus of dowel support (similar to modulus
of subgrade reaction)
The range of K is between 80 to 400 GN/m3
Actual Bearing Stress due to load transfer by dowel bars
(cont.)
Maximum bearing stress is
b = Ky0 =
KPt (2 + z )
4 3 Ed Id
Maximum bearing stress depends on Pt , the load on the
dowel bar.
Pt depends on the manner of transfer of load by dowels
(13)
Dowel Group Action
W
W
2
W
2
Role of dowels is to transfer axle load from one slab to another
Dowels, together, will maximum transfer half the axle load,
when they are fully efficent.
Usual number is around 40% of the load.
Dowel Group Action (cont.)
Friberg found that the dowels over 1.8l distance from the point
of loading act together to transfer the load
Heinrichs has suggested a distance of 1.0l instead, which is
now used everywhere.
1.0l
1.0l
The maximum load on one dowel bar depends on the
distribution
Dowel Group Action (cont.)
Load on dowel bar is assumed to linearly decrease with
distance from load, being zero at 1.0l from the point of load.
If multiple loads are acting at the transverse joint, for each
one, the distribution must be determined.
The total force on a dowel bar is the sum of the forces due to
each load.
Dowel Design Procedure
Pick dowel diameter and length from table.
Assume a trial spacing
Calculate the maximum force on a dowel bar by considering
the most critical loading condition
The 85 percentile single axle load is taken as the critical load.
The critical loading condition is when the single axle is placed
flush with the edge of the pavement.
Determine maximum bearing stress corresponding to the
maximum dowel load
If bearing stress exceeds allowable bearing stress, reduce
spacing
If spacing is already too small, increase dowel diameter
