Investigation Of The Effect Of Curling On As Constructed Smoothness And Ride Quality Of Kdot Portland Cement Concrete Pcc Pavements

Environmental effects such as temperature and/or moisture gradient across the thickness of the concrete pavement slab can cause curling, which also affects the roughness. In this report, the effect of curling on as-constructed smoothness as well as early-life roughness of Portland Cement Concrete Pavements (PCCP) was investigated. Twelve test sections on six newly built concrete pavement projects on Interstate routes 70 and 135 were selected. Periodic longitudinal profile data was collected by a South Dakota-type profiler on each wheel path of both the driving and passing lanes. A digital method was developed to separate curling from the longitudinal profile using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). International Roughness Index (IRI) values were calculated for the original profile, curled profile, and profile without curling. The contribution of curling to the measured roughness was found to be significant.