Evaluating Effectiveness of Dowels in Jointed-Concrete Pavements with Faulting Data from Rapid-Travel Profilers

This paper presents a study that uses the data from FHWA's General Pavement Studies Three (GPS3) rapid-travel profiler for jointed-concrete pavement to quantify faulting at joints and cracks and to analyze the effectiveness of load transfer dowel bars for reducing faulting. A method for identifying and quantifying the fault size at each joint and crack is described. This profile-based fault quantification method has relatively high precision that results in smooth age trends for faulting growth over time at the GPS3 sites. Size estimates generally match manual Georgia fault meter trends. More time series faulting measurements are available from the rapid travel profile dates than from the lane closure Georgia fault meter survey dates. The paper offers design-oriented nonlinear regression models that can backpredict the age trends for fault growth at the GPS3 sites as viewed through the rapid-travel profiler data. Two regression models are provided, one for the sites with dowels at joints and one for sites with only aggregate interlock for load transfer across joints. In this study, the same regression model form was used for each population's data set. This method allows a fair and direct comparison of the apparent effectiveness of dowels in jointed-concrete pavement systems for a given set of design conditions. Some interesting trends observed from sensitivity analyses of the resulting regression models are presented.