Specification for Nonbituminous Inserts for Contraction Joints in Portland Cement Concrete Airfield Pavements, Sawable Type

The general mission of most transportation agencies is to ensure a customer focus in the development and operation of a safe and efficient transportation system. The customers desire comfort, convenience, safety, and cost-effectiveness in a transportation system. Agency research must have the objectives of addressing customer-related issues and measuring benefits of importance to them. Accordingly, any joint and sealant research must answer the questions, Why do we seal? and Is it cost-effective? Joint and sealant studies of portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements must address whether joint sealing enhances total pavement performance and is cost-effective, and, if so, what sealant system should be used. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has been studying the effect of PCC joint/crack sealing on total pavement performance for 50 years. By 1967 there was substantial documentation that filling and refilling of contraction joints had no beneficial effect on pavement performance. By 1984, it was concluded that pavements with unsealed joints had better overall performance (distress, ride, materials integrity) than pavements with sealed joints. In 1990, WisDOT passed a policy eliminating all PCC joint sealing, in new construction and maintenance. This "no-seal" policy has saved Wisconsin $6,000,000 annually with no loss in pavement performance and with increased customer safety and convenience. The entire PCC sealing issue is beginning to be addressed at the national level, ensuring no false assumptions and with the customer’s needs in view.

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Specification for Nonbituminous Inserts for Contraction Joints in Portland Cement Concrete Airfield Pavements, Sawable Type

10.1520/d2828-96 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Portland Cement ◽

Portland Cement Concrete ◽

Cement Concrete ◽

Contraction Joints

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Development of a Capacitor Probe to Detect Subsurface Deterioration in Concrete

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/proc-503-231 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 503 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

B. K. Diefenderfer ◽

I. L. Al-Qadi ◽

J. J. Yoho ◽

S. M. Riad ◽

A. Loulizi

Keyword(s):

Dielectric Constant ◽

Portland Cement ◽

Electromagnetic Waves ◽

Low Cost ◽

Complex Dielectric Constant ◽

Life Cycle Costs ◽

Parallel Plates ◽

Portland Cement Concrete ◽

Cement Concrete ◽

Set Up

ABSTRACTPortland cement concrete (PCC) structures deteriorate with age and need to be maintained or replaced. Early detection of deterioration in PCC (e.g., alkali-silica reaction, freeze/thaw damage, or chloride presence) can lead to significant reductions in maintenance costs. However, it is often too late to perform low-cost preventative maintenance by the time deterioration becomes evident. By developing techniques that would enable civil engineers to evaluate PCC structures and detect deterioration at early stages (without causing further damage), optimization of life-cycle costs of the constructed facility and minimization of disturbance to the facility users can be achieved.Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods are potentially one of the most useful techniques ever developed for assessing constructed facilities. They are noninvasive and can be performed rapidly. Portland cement concrete can be nondestructively evaluated by electrically characterizing its complex dielectric constant. The real part of the dielectric constant depicts the velocity of electromagnetic waves in PCC. The imaginary part, termed the “loss factor,” describes the conductivity of PCC and the attenuation of electromagnetic waves.Dielectric properties of PCC have been investigated in a laboratory setting using a parallel plate capacitor operating in the frequency range of 0.1 to 40.1MIHz. This capacitor set-up consists of two horizontal-parallel plates with an adjustable separation for insertion of a dielectric specimen (PCC). While useful in research, this approach is not practical for field implementation. A new capacitor probe has been developed which consists of two plates, located within the same horizontal plane, for placement upon the specimen to be tested. Preliminary results show that this technique is feasible and results are promising; further testing and evaluation is currently underway.

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