DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF HIGHWAY PAVEMENTS

(BCV613D)

Design Wheel Load

Wheel load on pavement is an important factor to determine the pavement thickness to be adopted.
By providing adequate thickness, the load coming from wheels doesn’t affect the subgrade soil. The
wheel load is acts at particular point on pavement and cause deformations. If the vehicle contains dual
wheels on one side of axle, then convert it into equivalent single wheel load. Dual wheeled axle
vehicles control the contact pressure within the limits.

Wheel configuration affects the stress distribution and deflection within a pavement. Many commercial
vehicles have dual rear wheels which ensure that the contact pressure is within the limits. The normal
practice is to convert dual wheel into an equivalent single wheel load so that the analysis is made simpler.

Axles are the important part of the vehicles which enables the wheels to rotate while moving. By
providing multiple axles, vehicle can carry more loads. So, the axle load also influences the design of

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pavement. In the layer theory of flexible pavement design wheels on one side of axles are considered to
design the pavement. Similarly in the plate theory of rigid pavement design wheels on both sides are
considered.

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Axle Load (Single Axle with Single Tyre)

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Axle Load (Single Axle with Dual Wheel Assembly)

Axle Load (Tandem Axle with Dual Wheel Assembly)

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Axle Load (Mul Axle Trucks)

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Axle Load (Trucks with Extended Chassis)

Axle Load (Trucks with Extended Chassis)

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Repetition of Loads
The influence of traffic on pavement not only depends on the magnitude of the wheel load, but also on
the frequency of the load applications. Each load application causes some deformation and the total
deformation is the summation of all these. Although the pavement deformation due to single axle load is
very small, the cumulative effect of number of load repetition is significant. Therefore, modern design
is based on total number of standard axle load (usually 80 kN single axle).

Contact Pressure / Tyre Pressure

When the vehicle is moving on pavement, a pressure developed between the tire and pavement. If the
tire is low pressure tire, then contact pressure will be greater than tire pressure. If it is high pressure tire,
then contact pressure will be less than tire pressure. The original Shape of contact area is generally
elliptical. But to ease the calculations circular shape is considered.

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Subgrade and Drainage

Soil is an accumulation or deposit of earth material, derived naturally from the disintegration of rocks or
decay of vegetation, that can move by using power equipment. Undisturbed soil beneath the pavement
is called natural subgrade. Compacted subgrade is the soil densification using heavy compactors.

Desirable properties of Soil Subgrade

• Stability and Strength

• Incompressibility

• Less or no changes in volume and stability when in contact water

• Good drainage

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• Ease of compaction

Test on Soil Subgrade

Sub grade soil is an integral part of the road pavement structure as it provides the support to the pavement
from beneath. The sub grade soil and its properties are important in the design of pavement structure.
The main function of the sub grade is to give adequate support to the pavement and for this the sub grade
should possess sufficient stability under adverse climatic and loading conditions. Therefore, it is very
essential to evaluate the sub grade by conducting tests.
The tests used to evaluate the strength properties of soils may be broadly divided into three groups:
 Shear tests
 Bearing tests
 Penetration tests
Shear tests are usually carried out on relatively small soil samples in the laboratory. In order to find out
the strength properties of soil, a number of representative samples from different locations are tested.
Some of the commonly known shear tests are direct shear test, triaxial compression test, and unconfined
compression test.

Bearing tests are loading tests carried out on sub grade soils in-situ with a load bearing area. The results
of the bearing tests are influenced by variations in the soil properties within the stressed soil mass
underneath and hence the overall stability of the part of the soil mass stressed could be studied.
Penetration tests may be considered as small scale bearing tests in which the size of the loaded area is
relatively much smaller and ratio of the penetration to the size of the loaded area is much greater than
the ratios in bearing tests. The penetration tests are carried out in the field or in the laboratory.

Plate Bearing Test

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The modulus of subgrade reaction is determined by the field plate load test. In this test, compressive
stress is applied to the soil layer through rigid plates, and the deflections are measured for different values
of stress.

The test setup consists of a loading frame that has a hydraulic jack, a reaction beam, and a proving ring.
The settlement of the plate is measured using a dial gauge. The dial gauges are attached to a separate
datum frame. The standard size of the plate is 750 mm in diameter.

Plate load test set up

The plate is properly placed on the test site. The test site must be levelled and prepared before placing
the plate, the stiffening plates are placed on the bottom plate in the order of decreasing diameter.

The test procedure is commenced by applying a seating load of 7 kN/m 2. This load is released after a
few seconds. The load is then applied to cause a settlement of s= 0.25 mm. When the settlement does
not increase, or it is less than 0.025 mm per minute, then the dial gauge reading is taken, and the average
settlement is determined. This procedure is repeated till the settlement goes to 0.175 cm. The pressure
corresponding to the settlement 0.125 cm is read from the plot, and the value of 'k' is determined as:

k = p/0.125

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The soil, after construction, is likely to soften due to external vibrations, water penetration, and other
imposed loads . This effect is considered by providing certain corrections to the value of 'k'. Here, 'k' is
corrected for full saturation. For this, two specimens from the site are subjected to consolidation test in
soaked and unsoaked condition. The consolidation test is conducted, and the pressure corresponding to
0.125 cm is determined for both the specimens. Then the corrected modulus of rupture is given by:

k' = k x [p/ps]

Where p and ps are the pressures for unsoaked and soaked specimen as shown in Figure below

Climatic Conditions

Depending on climatic conditions pavement type and material selections are influenced. Two major
factors influence the design of pavements.

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• Temperature

• Rainfall

The effect of temperature on asphalt pavements is diffrent from that of concrete pavements. Temperature
affects the resilient modulus of asphalt layers, while it induces curling of concrete slab. In rigid
pavements, due to difference in temperatures of top and bottom of slab, temperature stresses or frictional
stresses are developed. While in flexible pavement, dynamic modulus of asphaltic concrete varies with
temperature. Frost heave causes differential settlements and pavement roughness. Most detrimental
effect of frost penetration occurs during the spring break up period when the ice melts and subgrade is a
saturated condition. The precipitation from rain and snow affects the quantity of surface water infiltrating
into the subgrade and the depth of ground water table. Poor drainage may bring lack of shear strength,
pumping, loss of support, etc.

Pavement Materials
The following material properties are important for both flexible and rigid pavements.
 When pavements are considered as linear elastic, the elastic moduli and poisson ratio of subgrade
and each component layer must be specified.
 If the elastic modulus of a material varies with the time of loading, then the resilient modulus,
which is elastic modulus under repeated loads, must be selected in accordance with a load
duration corresponding to the vehicle speed.
 When a material is considered non-linear elastic, the constitutive equation relating the resilient
modulus to the state of the stress must be provided.
However, many of these material properties are used in visco-elastic models which are very complex
and in the development stage.

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Equivalent Single Wheel Load

Equivalent single wheel load (ESWL) is the single wheel load having the same contact pressure, which
produces same value of maximum stress, deflection, tensile stress or contact pressure at the desired depth.

The

procedure of finding the ESWL for equal stress criteria is a semi-rational method, known as Boyd and
Foster method, based on the following assumptions:

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• Equivalency concept is based on equal stress

• Contact area is circular
• Influence angle is 450
• Soil medium is elastic, homogeneous, and isotropic half space.

The ESWL is given by:

Where P is the wheel load, S is the center to center distance between the two wheels, d is the clear
distance between two wheels, and z is the desired depth.

Problems on ESWL

1) Find ESWL at depths of 5cm, 20cm and 40cm for a dual wheel carrying 2044 kg each. The center to
center tyre spacing is 20cm and distance between the walls of the two tyres is 10cm.

Solution

For desired depth z=40cm, which is twice the tyre spacing, ESWL = 2P=22044 = 4088 kN.

For z=5cm, which is half the distance between the walls of the tyre, ESWL = P = 2044kN.

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For desired depth z=20cm, the value is to be calculated by formula

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The procedure of finding the ESWL by Graphical Method

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2) Calculate ESWL of a dual wheel assembly carrying 2044 kg each for trail pavement thickness values
of 150, 200 and 250 mm. Centre to centre spacing between the two tyres = 270 mm and clear gap
between the walls of the tyre = 110 mm.

Solution

Here P = 2044 kg, 2P = 4088 kg d = 110 mm therefore d/2 = 55mm and S = 270 mm and 2S = 540 mm.

By plotting the points (P, d/2) and (2P, 2S) on log-log sheet. We can get the value of ESWL for pavement
thickness of 150, 200 and 250 mm.

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6000

5000

4000

ESWL Graph
3000

2000

1000
25 225 425 625

Equivalent Wheel Load Factor

Equivalent Wheel Load Factor (EWLF): An EWLF defines the damage per pass to a pavement by the i th
type of load relative to the damage per pass of a standard load. While finding the EALF, the failure
criterion is important.

The deformation of pavement due to a single application of axle load may be small but due to repeated
application of load there would be accumulation of unrecovered or permanent deformation which results
in failure of pavement. If the pavement structure fails with N1 number of repetition of load W1 and for
the same failure criteria if it requires N2 number of repetition of load W 2, then W1N1 and W2N2 are
considered equivalent. Note that, W1N1 and W2N2 equivalency depends on the failure criterion
employed.

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The maximum allowed axle load on the roads is called legal axle load. For highways the maximum legal
axle load in India, specified by IRC, is 10 tones. Standard axle load: It is a single axle load with dual
wheel carrying 80 KN load and the design of pavement is based on the standard axle load.

Design of Flexible Pavement by CBR Method (IRC: 37-2001)

Design of flexible pavements as per guidelines of IRC: 37-2001 Scope: These guidelines are applied to
design flexible pavements for Expressway, National Highways, State Highways, Major District Roads,
and other categories of roads. Flexible pavements are considered to include the pavements which have
bituminous surfacing and granular base and sub-base courses conforming to IRC/MORT&H standards.

Design Principle:

The flexible pavements has been modeled as a three layer structure and stresses and strains at critical
locations have been computed using the linear elastic model. To give proper consideration to the aspects
of performance, the following three types of pavement distress resulting from repeated (cyclic)
application of traffic loads are considered. Vertical compressive strain at the top of the subgrade which
can cause sub-grade deformation resulting in permanent deformation at the pavement surface. Secondly
horizontal tensile strain or stress at the bottom of the bituminous layer which can cause fracture of the
bituminous layer and third criteria Pavement deformation within the bituminous layer. While the
permanent deformation within the bituminous layer can be controlled by meeting the mix design
requirements, thickness of granular and bituminous layers are selected using the analytical design
approach so that strains at the critical points are within the allowable limits. For calculating tensile strains
at the bottom of the bituminous layer, the stiffness of dense bituminous macadam (DBM) layer with
bitumen has been used in the analysis.

Under fatigue criteria, Bituminous surfacing of pavements display flexural fatigue cracking if the tensile
strain at the bottom of the bituminous layer is beyond certain limit. The relation between the fatigue life
of the pavement and the tensile strain in the bottom of the bituminous layer was obtained as

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in which, Nf is the allowable number of load repetitions to control fatigue cracking and E is the Elastic
modulus of bituminous layer. The use of the above equation would result in fatigue cracking of 20% of
the total area.

Rutting Criteria the contribution of rutting from various layers could be different. It is reported that 46%
of rutting take place from bituminous surface and granular base course, while the subbase and sub grade
contribute 54% of the total rutting. The vertical strain at subgrade is assumed as the index of rutting to
occur in a pavement. The allowable number of load repetitions to control permanent deformation can be
expressed as

Nr is the number of cumulative standard axles to produce rutting of 20 mm and €z is the

subgrade strain.

Design Procedure:
Based on the performance of existing designs and using analytical approach, simple design charts and a catalogue
of pavement designs are added in the guidelene. The pavement designs are given for subgrade CBR values ranging
from 2% to 10% and design traffic ranging from 1 msa to 150 msa for an average annual pavement temperature
of 35° C. The later thicknesses obtained from the analysis have been slightly modified to adapt the designs to stage
construction. Using the following simple input parameters, appropriate designs could be chosen for the given
traffic and soil strength, Design traffic in terms of cumulative number of standard axles CBR of subgrade.

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Design traffic:
The method considers traffic in terms of the cumulative number of standard axles (8160 kg) to be carried
by the pavement during the design life. This requires the following information:
1. Initial traffic in terms of CVPD
2. Traffic growth rate during the design life
3. Design life in number of years
4. Vehicle damage factor (VDF)
5. Distribution of commercial traffic over the carriageway
Initial traffic:
Initial traffic is determined in terms of commercial vehicles per day (CVPD). For the structural design
of the pavement only commercial vehicles are considered assuming laden weight of three tons or more
and their axle loading will be considered. Estimate of the initial daily average traffic flow for any road
should normally be based on 7-day 24 hour classified traffic counts (ADT). In case of new roads, traffic
estimates can be made on the basis of potential land use and traffic on existing routes in the area.
Traffic growth rate:
Traffic growth rates can be estimated
(i) by studying the past trends of traffic growth, and
(ii) by establishing econometric models.
If adequate data is not available, it is recommended that an average annual growth rate of
7.5 percent may be adopted.

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Design life:
For the purpose of the pavement design, the design life is defined in terms of the cumulative number of standard
axles that can be carried before strengthening of the pavement is necessary. It is recommended that pavements for
arterial roads like NH, SH should be designed for a life of 15 years, EH and urban roads for 20 years and other
categories of roads for 10 to 15 years.

Vehicle Damage Factor:

The vehicle damage factor (VDF) is a multiplier for converting the number of commercial vehicles of different
axle loads and axle configurations to the number of standard axle-load repetitions. It is defined as equivalent
number of standard axles per commercial vehicle. The VDF varies with the axle configuration, axle loading,
terrain, type of road, and from region to region. The axle load equivalency factors are used to convert different
axle load repetitions into equivalent standard axle load repetitions. For these equivalency factors refer IRC: 37-
2001. The exact VDF values are arrived after extensive field surveys.

Vehicle distribution:
A realistic assessment of distribution of commercial traffic by direction and by lane is necessary as it directly
affects the total equivalent standard axle load application used in the design. Until reliable data is available, the
following distribution may be assumed.

Single lane roads:

Traffic tends to be more channelized on single roads than two lane roads and to allow for this concentration of
wheel load repetitions, the design should be based on total number of commercial vehicles in both directions.

Two-lane single carriageway roads:

The design should be based on 75 % of the commercial vehicles in both directions.

Four-lane single carriageway roads:

The design should be based on 40 % of the total number of commercial vehicles in both directions.

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Dual carriageway roads:

For the design of dual two-lane carriageway roads should be based on 75 % of the number of commercial vehicles
in each direction. For dual three-lane carriageway and dual four-lane carriageway the distribution factor will be
60 % and 45 % respectively.

Pavement thickness design charts:

For the design of pavements to carry traffic in the range of l to 10 msa, use chart 1and for traffic in the range
10 to 150 msa, use chart 2 of IRC: 37-2001. The-design curves relate pavement thickness to the cumulative
number of standard axles to be carried over the design life for different sub-grade CBR values ranging from
2 % to 10 %. The design charts will give the total thickness of the pavement for the above inputs. The total
thickness consists of granular sub-base, granular base and bituminous surfacing. The individual layers are
designed based on the recommendations given below.

Pavement composition:

Sub-base:
Sub-base materials comprise natural sand, gravel, laterite, brick metal, crushed stone or combinations thereof
meeting the prescribed grading and physical requirements the sub-base material should have a minimum CBR
of 20% and 30% for traffic upto 2 msa and traffic exceeding 2 msa respectively. Sub-base usually consist of
granular material or WBM and the thickness should not be less than 150 mm for design traffic less than 10
msa and-200 mm for design traffic of 10-msa and above.

Base:

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The recommended designs are for unbounded granular bases which comprise conventional water bound
macadam (WBM) or wet mix macadam (WMM) or equivalent confirming to MORT&H specifications. The
materials should be of good quality with minimum thickness of 225 [Link] traffic up to 2 msa and 250 mm
for traffic-exceeding 2msa.

Bituminous surfacing:
The surfacing consists of a wearing course or a binder course plus wearing course. The most commonly used
wearing courses are surface dressing, open graded premix carpet, mix seal surfacing, semi-dense bituminous
concrete and bituminous concrete. For binder course, MORT&H specifies, it is desirable to use Bituminous
Macadam (BM) for traffic upto 5 msa and Dense Bituminous Bacadam (DBM) for traffic more than 5 msa.

Numerical Problems

Design the pavement for construction of a new bypass with the following data:
Two lane carriage way
Initial traffic in the year of completion of construction = 400 CVPD (sum of both directions)
Traffic growth rate = 7.5 %
Design life = 15 years
Vehicle damage factor based on axle load survey = 2.5 standard axle per commercial vehicle
Design CBR of subgrade soil = 4%.

Solution:
Distribution factor = 0.75

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Total pavement thickness for CBR 4% and traffic 7.2 msa from IRC:37 2001 chart1 = 660 mm
Pavement composition can be obtained by interpolation from Pavement Design Catalogue (IRC:37
2001).
Bituminous surfacing = 25 mm SDBC + 70 mm DBM
Road-base = 250 mm WBM
sub-base = 315 mm granular material of CBR not less than 30 %

Design the pavement for construction of a new two lane carriageway for design life 15 years using IRC
method. The initial traffic in the year of completion in each direction is 150 CVPD and growth rate is
5%. Vehicle damage factor based on axle load survey = 2.5 std axle per commercial vehicle. Design CBR
of subgrade soil=4%.

Solution:

Distribution factor = 0.75

Total pavement thickness for CBR 4% and traffic 4.4 msa from IRC:37 2001 chart1 = 580 mm

Pavement composition can be obtained by interpolation from Pavement Design Catalogue (IRC:37
2001).
Bituminous surfacing = 20 mm PC + 50 mm BM
Road-base = 250 mm Granular base
sub-base = 280 mm granular material.
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Rigid Pavement

Rigid pavements are those which posses notew orthy flexural strength or flexural rigidity. The
stresses are not transferred from grain to grain to lower layers as in the case of flexible pavements

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layers.

The rigid pavement has the slab action and is capable of transmitting the wheel load stresses
through a wider area below, thus the types of stresses developed and their distribution within the
cement concrete slab are quite different.

The rigid pavement does not get deformed to the shape of the lower surface as it can bridge the
minor variations of lower layers.

Figure-3 Typical Cross of Rigid Pavements

A Typical Rigid pavement consists of four components:

1. Soil Subgrade

2. Sub-base course
3. Surface course

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Rigid pavements have sufficient flexural strength to transmit the wheel load stresses to a wider
area below A typical cross section of the rigid pavement, compared to flexible pavement, rigid
pavements are placed either directly on the prepared sub-grade or on a single layer of granular or
stabilized material. Since there is only one layer of material between the concrete and the sub-
grade, this layer can be called as base or sub-base course In rigid pavement, load is distributed by
the slab action, and the pavement behaves like an elastic plate resting on a viscous medium. Rigid
pavements are constructed by Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) and should be analysed by plate
theory instead of layer theory, assuming an elastic plate resting on viscous foundation. Plate theory
is a simplified version of layer theory that assumes the concrete slab as a medium thick plate which
is plane before loading and to remain plane after loading. Bending of the slab due to wheel load
and temperature variation and the resulting tensile and flexural stress.

Rigid Pavement Design

Thickness of the CC pavement slab is decided based on the following two points:

• The maximum bending tensile stress resulting out of maximum wheel load stress and
critical warping stresses should be less than the flexural strength of concrete The CC
pavement should withstand the expected number of repetitions of axle loads during its
design.

• Joints are designed to take care of the warping stresses.

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Joints

There are three basic joint types used in concrete pavement

contraction, construction and isolation. Specific design requirements for each type depend upon the
joint's orientation to the direction of the roadway (transverse or longitudinal). Another
important factor is load transfer. Except for some isolation joints, all joints provide a means to
mechanically connect slabs. The connection helps to spread a load applied on one slab onto slabs
along its perimeter(s). This decreases the stress within the concrete and increases the longevity of
the joint and slab(s). The efficiency of the mechanical connection is expressed as load
transfer efficiency.

Contraction Joints

Contraction joints are necessary to control natural cracking from stresses caused by concrete
shrinkage, thermal contraction, and moisture or thermal gradients within the concrete. Typically
transverse contraction joints are cut at a right angle to the pavement centerline and edges. However,
some agencies skew transverse contraction joints to decrease dynamic loading across the joints by
eliminating the simultaneous crossing of each wheel on a vehicle’s axle. Contraction joints are
usually sawed into the concrete, but they might be formed or tooled on smaller projects. The details
below show the different types of contraction joints and their dimensions.

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Construction Joints

Construction joints join concrete that is paved at different times. Transverse construction
joints are necessary at the end of a paving segment, or at a placement interruption for a
driveway, cross road or bridge. Longitudinal construction joints join lanes that are
paved at different times, or join through-lanes to curb and gutter or auxiliary lanes. The
details below show the different types of construction joints and their dimensions.

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Isolation Joints

Isolation joints separate the pavement from objects or structures, and allow independent
pavement

of the pavement, object or structure without any connection that could cause damage.
Isolation joints are used where a pavement abuts certain manholes, drainage fixtures,
sidewalks and buildings, and intersects other pavements or bridges. The details below
show the different types of isolation joints and their dimensions.

Design Parameters
• Modulus of Subgrade Reaction
Westergaard considered the rigid pavement slab as a thin elastic plate resting on soil sub-grade,
which is assumed as a dense liquid. The upward reaction is assumed to be proportional to the
deflection. Base on this assumption, Westergaard defined a modulus of sub-grade reaction K in
kg/cm3 given by K= P/∆, where ∆ is the displacement level taken as 0.125 cm and is the pressure
sustained by the rigid plate of 75 cm diameter at a deflection of 0.125 cm.

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• Characteristics of subgrade

a. Subgrade strength is expressed in terms of modulus of subgrade reaction ‘K’

determined by plate bearing test using 750 mm dia. plate as per IS: 9214-1974.

b. ‘K’ is affected by moisture content. Therefore it is desirable to determine its

value soon after monsoon.

c. For a homogenous soil subgrade ‘K’ may be obtained from its soaked CBR
values using table below; as specified by IRC

• Relative stiffness of slab to sub-grade

Certain degree of resistance to slab deflection is offered by the sub-grade. The sub-grade
deformation is same as the slab deflection. Hence the slab deflection is direct measurement of
the magnitude of the sub-grade pressure. This pressure deformation characteristics of rigid
pavement lead Westergaard to the define the term radius of relative stiffness in cm is given by
the equation.

2 5
where E is the modulus of elasticity of cement concrete in kg/cm (3.0 X10
), µ is the Poisson's ratio of concrete (0.15), h is the slab thickness in cm and
K is the modulus of sub-grade reaction.

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• Equivalent radius of resisting section

When the interior point is loaded, only a small area of the pavement is resisting the bending
moment of the plate. Westergaard's gives a relation for equivalent radius of the resisting section
in cm in the equation

Where a is the radius of the wheel load distribution, h in cm and is the slab thickness in
cm.

Wheel Load Stresses

The cement concrete slab is assumed to be homogeneous and to have uniform elastic properties
with vertical sub-grade reaction being proportional to the deflection. Westergaard developed
relationships for the stress at interior, edge and corner regions, denoted as in kg/cm2 respectively
and given by the equation,

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• Wheel Load Stresses

where h is the slab thickness in cm, P is the wheel load in kg, a is the radius of the wheel load
distribution in cm, l the radius of the relative stiffness in cm and b is the radius of the resisting
section in cm.

• Temperature Stresses
Temperature stresses are developed in cement concrete pavement due to variation in slab
temperature. This is caused by (i) daily variation resulting in a temperature gradient across the
thickness of the slab and (ii) seasonal variation resulting in overall change in the slab
temperature. The former results in warping stresses and the later in frictional stresses.

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• Temperature Stresses during night and day

• Temperature Stresses
The warping stress at the interior, edge and corner regions, denoted as in σi σe σc kg/cm2
respectively and given by the equation

Where E is the modulus of elasticity of concrete

2 5
in kg/cm (3X10 ), ε is the thermal coefficient
0 -7
of concrete per C (1x10 ) t is the temperature
difference between the top and bottom of the
slab, C and C are the coefficient based on Lx/l
x y
in the desired direction and Ly/l in right angle
to the desired direction, µ is the Poisson's ration
(0.15), a is the radius of the contact area and l
is the radius of the relative stiffness.

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• Frictional Stresses
The frictional stress σf in kg/cm2 is given by the equation

2
Where W is the unit weight of concrete in kg/cm (2400), f is the coefficient of sub grade friction
(1.5) and L is the length of the slab in meters.

• Combination of Stresses
The cumulative effect of the different stress give rise to the following three critical cases
Summer, mid-day: The critical stress is for edge region given by

Winter, mid-day: The critical combination of stress is for the edge region given by

Mid-nights: The critical combination of stress is for the corner region given by

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Design of Joints
Dowel bars
The purpose of the dowel bar is to effectively transfer the load between two concrete slabs and
to keep the two slabs in same height. The dowel bars are provided in the direction of the traffic
(longitudinal).
The design considerations are:
• Mild steel rounded bars
• Bonded on one side and free on other side.

Bradbury's analysis
• Bradbury's analysis gives load transfer capacity of single dowel bar in shear, bending
and bearing as follows:

where, P is the load transfer capacity of a single dowel bar in shear s, f bending and b
bearing, d is the diameter of the bar in cm, L is the length of the embedment of dowel
d
bar in cm, δ is the joint width in cm, F F F are the permissible stress in shear, bending
s f b
2
and bearing for the dowel bar in kg/cm .

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Design Steps
Step 1: Find the length of the dowel bar embedded in slab by equating Eq.
[bending]=Eq. [bearing].

Step 2: Find the load transfer capacities Ps Pf Pb and of single dowel bar with the Ld.

Step 3: Assume load capacity of dowel bar is 40 percent wheel load, find the load
capacity factor f as.

Step 4: Spacing of the dowel bars.

• Effective distance upto which effective load transfer take place is given by 1.8 l, where
l is the radius of relative stiffness.
• Assume a linear variation of capacity factor of 1.0 under load to 0 at 1.8 l.
• Assume a dowel spacing and find the capacity factor of the above spacing.
• Actual capacity factor should be greater than the required capacity factor.
• If not repeat one more iteration with different spacing.

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Problem on Dowel Bar Design

Design size and spacing of dowel bars at an expansion joint of concrete pavement of thickness
25 cm. Given the radius of relative stiffness of 80 cm. Design wheel load 5000 kg. Load
capacity of the dowel system is 40 percent of design wheel load. Joint width is 2.0 cm and the
permissible stress in shear, bending and bearing stress in dowel bars are 1000,1400 and 100
kg/cm2 respectively.

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Tie Bar Design

In contrast to dowel bars, tie bars are not load transfer devices, but serve as a means to tie two
slabs.

Hence tie bars must be deformed or hooked and must be firmly anchored into the concrete to
function properly. They are smaller than dowel bars and placed at large intervals. They are
provided across longitudinal joints.

Tie Bar Design

Step:1
Diameter and spacing: The diameter and the spacing is first found out by equating the total
subgrade friction to the total tensile stress for a unit length (one meter). Hence the area of steel
per one meter in cm2 is given by:

Where, b is the width of the pavement panel in m, h is the depth of the pavement in cm, W is
the unit weight of the concrete (assume 2400 kg/cm2), f is the coefficient of friction (assume
1.5), and Ss is the allowable working tensile stress in steel (assume 1750 kg/cm 2 ). Assume 0.8
to 1.5 cm Ф bars for the design.

Step:2

Length of Tie Bar: Length of the tie bar: Length of the tie bar is twice the length needed to
develop bond stress equal to the working tensile stress and is given by:

where, d is the diameter of the bar, Ss is the allowable tensile stress in kg/cm2, and Sb is the
allowable bond stress and can be assumed for plain and deformed bars respectively as 17.6
kg/cm2 and 24.6 kg/cm2.

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Problem on Tie Bar Design

A cement concrete pavement of thickness 18 cm, has two lanes of 7.2 m with a joint. Design
the tie bars.

Rigid Pavement Design by IRC:58:2002

The fatigue behavior of Concrete Pavements

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Steps in Rigid Pavement Design by IRC:58:2002

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Dr. B.V. Kiran Kumar, GSKSJTI, Bengaluru-560 001 Page 136