Numerical Simulation of Precast Concrete Panel for Airfield Pavement

Abstract

While the use of cast-in-place concrete for an airfield and highway pavement overlay is very common, the application of precast concrete elements is very limited because of two main reasons - high production costs and complex structural behaviour. There are only a few PCP systems developed particularly for the construction of airfields. It concerns a hexagonal-shaped panel system and PAG system invented in the Soviet Union in the 20th century (Novak & al. 2017). Since cast-in-situ pavements became more common due to the production costs, PCP systems are mostly used in order to achieve construction time savings in highway applications with high traffic volume where lane closures are a challenge and for rapid repair and rehabilitation applications at airfield pavements. The paper describes the reinforcement design of the precast concrete element used for the proposed PCP system being developed recently at Czech Technical University in Prague. The design is only the first step in the system development and includes several phases. First, the theoretical analysis of the precast concrete panel behaviour, particularly the effect of imperfections on its structural behaviour, is demonstrated. Subsequently, the numerical analysis on a non-linear model is described in detail. As an outcome, the design of reinforcement required to fulfil assumed conditions such as crack width and tensile stress in reinforcement is presented and evaluated.