Investigation of the Effect of a Structural Element Perpendicular to the Slab on the Pumping-Induced Damage in Concrete Pavements

The pumping phenomenon is one of the major causes of damage in concrete pavements of roads and airports. To reduce the effects of pumping, this paper proposes attaching to the pavement slab a structural element of the same material that is oriented perpendicular to the pavement plane. The study investigated the effect of this structural element on the vertical deformation of the concrete pavement, especially around the edge of the slab, and the horizontal displacement of the fine fraction of saturated soil (base or bed) beneath the slab near the joints. Stress and deformation analyses were performed by modeling the slab-soil system under static and dynamic traffic loads in ABAQUS software. Stress and deformation analyses of the slab with and without the attachment (the element placed perpendicular to the slab plane) showed the positive effect of the element on the vertical deformation of the slab and also the deformation of the soil underneath the slab parallel and perpendicular to the direction of traffic. The edge displacement in the simple slab and the one with the attachment was determined to be 1.5 and 0.98, respectively. The highest vertical displacements in the modeled concrete slabs were observed in the simple slab under static loading (0.42) followed by the modified slab under static loading (0.3). The software outputs also showed the positive effect of the element on the stress in the concrete pavement slab and the soil beneath it.