Evaluating the Efficiency of the Joint in an Existing Airport Concrete Pavement to Transfer Impulse Load.

The performance of a joint in airport rigid pavements can be evaluated using load transfer efficiency (LTE). Various existing methods to calculate LTE using different parameters were reviewed in this paper, illustrating how the performance of a joint that performs well is underestimated. To address this concern, a new parameter obtained from the deflection time history output of HWD (Heavy Weight Deflectometer) is being proposed to calculate LTE. Field measurements and FEM (Finite Element Method) modeling were employed to validate the proposed calculation in comparison with the conventional calculations of LTE. Based on the statistical analysis, the proposed method shows low variance and error compared to the conventional calculation of LTE in airport pavements. Moreover, core samples were collected along the tested joints to verify if the calculated values manifest the internal condition of the joints. The calculated results from the proposed LTE show a good agreement not only with the surface condition of the joints, but also with the collected core samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]