Effects of changing block dimension and mix design on the performance of Block pavements in Iran

The goal of pavement design is to select a cost-effective and durable pavement for given traffic and weather condition. Traditionally, port pavements have been designed by using the British port association (BPA) method. In this method Conventional 200mm x 100mm plan dimension by 80mm thickness rectangular concrete blockpaver is recommended. In this study, with applying BPA finite element model, effects of changing the shape(thickness) of concrete block paving on total thickness and cost of the heavy duty pavements in Iran are investigated. A laboratory experiment was conducted to produce samples of different cement contents and watercement ratios and to study the effects of mix design on concrete pavers. The result showed that for each w/c ratioassumed, increasing the cement content from a certain percentage adversely affects pavers’ quality and causes extra cost. The optimum mixture design was obtained when the cement content and w/c were 300 kg/m3 and 0.25respectively. Numerical results from finite element analysis showed that thicker block pavers in case of heavier loads are more economical than thinner ones.

Keywords:

Concrete Block pavements , Mixture design , Finite element