Mechanistic Analysis of Rigid Pavement for Wheel Load Stresses by Finite Element Method Considering Different Sub Grade

Abstract

In recent years, cement concrete pavement is being adopted in many new road projects newlinein India in view of their longer service lives, lesser maintenance requirement and smoother newlineriding surface. The current practice of constructing concrete pavements in India is to provide newlinea sub-base over the subgrade and the concrete slab on top however, a rough interface will be newlineuseful in reducing load associated stresses. In the present work, analysis of concrete pavements using ANSYS software has been attempted. ANSYS is a finite element method-based software. The concrete slab has been modeled with solid 45 brick element and spring elements for soil. Analysis was carried out for a wide range of load and slab soil combination. The soil as Winkler type represented by elastic springs and their stiffness was derived from modulus of sub-grade reaction. The model is subjected to number of varying input parameters like the change in the thickness of pavements lab, sub-grade material to Winkler foundation, modulus of elasticity by adding metal chips in different percentage like 10%, 20%, 30% and also intensity of loads. It is aimed to compare the stresses of the model study with classical approach of Westergaards and IRC 58-2002 method. Westergaards equation under estimate edge wheel load stresses when compared with those obtained from ANSYS. For generating the charts, edge loading condition was considered which is critical case for wheel load stresses. Also, it was aimed to compare the results with those given by IRC 58 2002 design charts. Design charts were developed in thesis work yield the same value of pavement thickness as that of IRC 58 2002 method. newline