Probabilistic modelling of pavement joint opening

Joint opening of concrete pavement is caused by changes in the temperature and humidity of concrete slabs. The joint opening influences the load transfer efficiency between two adjacent slabs and the performance of sealants of the joint. Thus, joints that show larger openings than the predicted size may experience faulting at an early age of the concrete pavement owing to loss of the load transfer efficiency due to pumping of base materials through the failed joint sealants. In addition, because of intrusion of incompressible materials into the joints through the torn sealants, unexpected spalling may develop. In this study, factors influencing variation in the joint openings of concrete pavements were investigated using data of the US Federal Highway Administration long-term pavement performance seasonal monitoring programme sections. A probabilistic joint opening model using the upper bound of the 90% confidence interval of the joint opening was developed in order to mitigate underestimation of the joint opening. The newly developed joint opening model was validated using a series of data pertaining to joint movement measured at the Korea Expressway Corporation test road.