Principal Investigator(s):
Mark Snyder, Former University Researcher, Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering
Project summary:
The objective of this project is the development, construction and demonstration of a facility for rapidly testing concrete and asphalt pavements to determine the effects of important design, construction and environmental parameters on pavement performance. The test stand will allow the application of repeated simulated heavy traffic loads on pavement test sections with varying properties, allowing the evaluation of many types of pavement design, materials, and construction variables. The proposed demonstration will feature the testing of typical Minnesota portland cement concrete pavement designs constructed on both artificial and composite (natural over artificial) foundations. Other demonstration test variables will include the use of recycled concrete aggregates in the concrete slab, the retrofitting of dowels across cracks in damaged slabs, and simulation of daytime slab curling effects. Replicates will be tested to obtain a measure of the variability of test results. The results of these tests will provide MnDOT with a good indication of the ability of the proposed test apparatus to perform accelerated load testing of new pavement designs, materials and features. The proposed demonstration tests will also provide MnDOT with an early indication of the performance potential of retrofit dowels and the relative performance potential of concrete pavements that incorporate recycled concrete aggregate.