×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Tolerable settlement of rigid pavements

Tolerable settlement of rigid pavements

Tolerable settlement of rigid pavements

(OP)
Someone posted a question back in 2004 (thread 822-104369) essentially asking: "what is the tolerable post-construction settlement for road pavements on embankments constructed over soft ground?"

Recent experience in Australia indicate that jointed Plain Concrete Pavements (PCP)continue to perform adequately after total post-construction settlements of up to 300mm.

Of course, it is differential settlement that causes damage rather than total settlement.  For rigid pavements, the general guide is that D/T^2 should be less than 2.5E-4/m where D is the depth of differential settlement and T is the half wave length of settlement.  For example, in the longitudinal direction of the road, a maximum settlement of 300mm at the centre of a settlement bowl having a half wave length of 35m would satisfy this guide.  In the transverse direction, the corresponding maximum differential settlement would be approximately 42mm over a half wave length of 13m.

The maximum differential settlement that a concrete pavement can tolerate may also be expressed in terms of the allowable strain in the concrete.  The maximum strain in a pavement due to curvature may be assessed using the simple relationship (strain = t/R) where t = thickness of pavement and R = radius of curvature.  R will be a function of the lateral variability of the soft soil properties and thickness, embankment thickness and stiffness, and the stiffness of the pavement, which need to be assessed on a case by case basis.

However, in selecting the appropriate design tolerable settlement and differential settlement of road embankments, the designer must also consider road safety base on the speed limit of the road, ride comfort, flood and drainage criteria.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources