EFFECTS OF VERTICAL WALL BARRIER ON THE RIGID PAVEMENT DEFLECTION OF FULL SCALE 1-PILE ROW NAILED-SLAB SYSTEM ON SOFT SUB GRADE

Abstract

The weaker part of rigid pavement when it is loaded is the edge of slab. Vehicle wheels that
are often running in/out from/to pavement can cause void in the sub base-pavement interface for a long time
loading period. Flexural moment caused by temperatures also precipitate the damages of pavement edge. To
avoid the damage of pavement edge, the vertical wall barrier is added. This research is aimed to learn the
contribution of vertical wall barrier on the pavement of Nailed-slab System to reduce the slab deflection. Full
scale observation was done over models in soft clay soil. The full scale of 1 pile row Nailed-slab System was
conducted on soft clay which consisted of 6.00 m x 1.20 m slab area with 0.15 m in slab thickness, 5 short
micro piles as slab stiffeners which were installed under the slab. Piles and slab were connected
monolithically, then in due with vertical concrete wall barrier on the two ends of slab. The system was loaded
by compression loadings on the slab. Deflection of model without vertical wall barrier was analyzed by finite
element method. Results show that the vertical wall barrier cannot significantly reduce the deflection for edge
loading. It is opposite to the model test result from Puri, et.al. (2011) where the vertical wall barrier can
reduce 74% deflection for edge loadings. It is to be expected that numerical application program could not
model the vertical wall barrier which lower position than slab level.