Finite Element Analysis of Thermal Upheaval Buckling of Concrete Pavement

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Copyright: Yang, Yang
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Abstract
This thesis presents a finite element model for the analysis of concrete pavement blow-ups which are also known as concrete pavement thermal buckles. Concrete blow-ups have been a serious problem that troubled the concrete pavement construction area for more than 100 years, although it is well known and widely accepted that the main cause is a rise of temperature and moisture content, in the 1980s, AD Kerr presented the first academically recognized theoretical analysis for this problem to provide a solid understanding of the mechanism behind this phenomenon. Nevertheless, due to the scale of the model and the nature of the complexity of pavement thermal buckling behaviour, the verification for Kerr’s theoretical analysis especially from experimental work is still lacking. Hence, the influence of several assumptions that have been made during Kerr’s theoretical analysis also could not be examined. In this thesis, a finite element model is developed by applying a beam laid on foundation model with contact behaviour between the beam and foundation to describe the concrete pavement thermal buckling phenomenon. The finite element analysis process has been proposed by the Riks Method using Abaqus. According to the finite element results, good agreement is achieved when the results are compared to the analytical results of AD Kerr by introducing a model of the same scale. In addition, the assignment of the values for critical parameters such as concrete density and concrete thermal expansion coefficient during the finite element analysis reveals the guidance for future concrete pavement constructions. To conclude, with the current research results, FE model can be regarded as an accurate and reliable method that can predict the buckling and post-buckling behaviour of both continuous and jointed concrete pavements under thermal loading.
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Author(s)
Yang, Yang
Supervisor(s)
Bradford, Mark
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Publication Year
2018
Resource Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
UNSW Faculty
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