Among the most intense pavement applications, industrial pavements often face unusually heavy, dynamic, and even impact loads. Industrial pavement sections often consist of multiple thick material layers, when optimized, working together to distribute applied loads more evenly, diffusing internal stresses, in the most efficient manner.
Whether sea port, manufacturing facility, retail distribution center, or other environment, industrial pavements are often designed for an unusually long performance life to avoid loss of revenue during the down time repairs require.
The proven long-term performance of concrete pavements offers engineers choices. Jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) placed by conventional means, provides simple, time-tested performance. Roller compacted concrete pavement (RCC), a stiff, optimized concrete mixture placed with high density screed, asphalt-type paving machines offers fast placement with its roots in heavy industrial projects for logging industry, US Army Corps of Engineers and countless manufacturing and intermodal facilities. Whether selecting these or other concrete pavement types, the underlying layers of cement treated base (CTB) and cement stabilized subgrade (CSS) soils working together, can play critical roles maximizing performance and cost.
Whether sea port, manufacturing facility, retail distribution center, or other environment, industrial pavements are often designed for an unusually long performance life to avoid loss of revenue during the down time repairs require.
The proven long-term performance of concrete pavements offers engineers choices. Jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) placed by conventional means, provides simple, time-tested performance. Roller compacted concrete pavement (RCC), a stiff, optimized concrete mixture placed with high density screed, asphalt-type paving machines offers fast placement with its roots in heavy industrial projects for logging industry, US Army Corps of Engineers and countless manufacturing and intermodal facilities. Whether selecting these or other concrete pavement types, the underlying layers of cement treated base (CTB) and cement stabilized subgrade (CSS) soils working together, can play critical roles maximizing performance and cost.
The increase in industrial traffic has led pavement engineers to increase the thickness of the concrete layer to withstand the heavy loads without considering the impact on the foundation layers resulting, in some cases, in premature failure. The current design procedure of concrete pavements quantifies the supporting layers using a single modulus of subgrade reaction or k-value (Winkler foundation), which leads to a design process that primarily focuses on the concrete layer and overlooks the advantages or disadvantages of considering specific material properties for each supporting layer. To overcome this limitation, researchers from The University of Texas at El Paso have incorporated a three-dimensional solid foundation model into a finite element analysis tool called RPAS. The RPAS analysis tool is available to the Cement Council of Texas and, upon request, we can check your industrial pavement design to ensure that the stresses/strains produced in each pavement layer (concrete, base/subbase and subgrade) by the applied loads are not exceeding their elastic limits.
