Flexible pavement longitudinal joint quality evaluation using non-destructive testing

Longitudinal joint construction quality is critical to the life of flexible pavements.Maintaining deteriorated longitudinal joints has become a challenge for many highway agencies.Improving the joint's quality through better compaction during construction can help achieve flexible pavements with longer service lives and less maintenance.Current quality control(QC)and quality assurance(QA)plans provide limited coverage.Consequently,the risk of missing areas with poor joint compaction is significant.A density profiling system(DPS)is a non-destructive alternative to conventional destructive evaluation methods.It can provide quick and continuous real-time coverage of the compaction during construction in dielectrics.The paper presents several case studies comparing various types of longitudinal joints and demonstrating the use of DPS to evaluate the joint's compaction quality.The paper shows that dielectric measurements can provide valuable insight into the ability of various construction techniques to achieve adequate levels of compaction at the longitudinal joint.The paper proposes a dielectric-based longitudinal joint quality index(LJQI)to evaluate the relative compaction of the joint during construction.It also shows that adopting DPS for assessing the compaction of longitudinal joints can minimize the risk of agencies accepting poorly constructed joints,identify locations of poor quality during construction,and achieve better-performing flexible pavements.

Discontinuous mechanical behaviors of existing shield tunnel with stiffness reduction at longitudinal joints

An analytical model is proposed to estimate the discontinuous mechanical behavior of an existing shield tunnel above a new tunnel. The existing shield tunnel is regarded as a Timoshenko beam with longitudinal joints. The opening and relative dislocation of the longitudinal joints can be calculated using Dirac delta functions. Compared with other approaches, our method yields results that are consistent with centrifugation test data. The effects of the stiffness reduction at the longitudinal joints (α and β), the shearing stiffness of the Timoshenko beam GA, and different additional pressure profiles on the responses of the shield tunnel are investigated. The results indicate that our proposed method is suitable for simulating the discontinuous mechanical behaviors of existing shield tunnels with longitudinal joints. The deformation and internal forces decrease as α, β, and GA increase. The bending moment and shear force are discontinuous despite slight discontinuities in the deflection, opening, and dislocation. The deflection curve is consistent with the additional pressure profile. Extensive opening, dislocation, and internal forces are induced at the location of mutation pressures. In addition, the joints allow rigid structures to behave flexibly in general, as well as allow flexible structures to exhibit locally rigid characteristics. Owing to the discontinuous characteristics, the internal forces and their abrupt changes at vulnerable sections must be monitored to ensure the structural safety of existing shield tunnels.

Improving the fatigue performance of longitudinal welded joints by low transformation temperature electrodes

For a longitudinal welded joint, the tensile residual stresses are as high as the yield stress of the metal, so that the weld toes are sensitive to fatigue load. In this case a low transformation temperature electrode (LTTE) is one of the most useful methods used to improve the fatigue strength of the longitudinal welded joint, because the tensile residual stress is reduced or changed into compressive stress. Three kinds of longitudinal welded joints were selected to conduct fatigue tests. The tests results show that the fatigue strengths at 2×10 6 cycles of the joints welded with LTTE were improved by 41%, 47% and 59% respectively compared with those of the joints welded with E5015, and the fatigue lives at 162 MPa were improved by 9.9 times, 9.6 times and 46.8 times respectively. Furthermore, the LTTE method is not necessary to add process after welding and so that it can be valuable method to improve the fatigue performance of longitudinal welded joints.

Discussion and study on contraction joints for RCC gravity dam

Based on the construction property of rolled compacted concrete, three-dimensional finite element relocating mesh method was developed in simulating construction process and computing temperature and stress field. Using this method, the temperature and the thermal stress fields developed in the RCC gravity dam of the Longtan project with or without a longitudinal joint during construction and operation are calculated so as to simulate the construction process. The computation results show that the value of the thermal stresses developed in the dam even, without any longitudinal joint, could meet the design criteria provided the placement temperature is adequately controlled.

Time-varying latent model for longitudinal data with informative observation and terminal event times

Longitudinal data often occur in follow-up studies, and in many situations, there may exist informative observation times and a dependent terminal event such as death that stops the follow-up. We propose a semiparametric mixed effect model with time-varying latent effects in the analysis of longitudinal data with informative observation times and a dependent terminal event. Estimating equation approaches are developed for parameter estimation, and asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established. The finite sample behavior of the proposed estimators is evaluated through simulation studies, and an application to a bladder cancer study is provided.