IDENTIFICATION OF THE VOID BETWEEN THE CEMENT CONCRETE PAVEMENT SLAB AND FOUNDATION BASED ON FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS USING ORTHOGONAL EXPERIMENT METHOD

Using orthogonal experiment method, the three-dimensional finite element models are developed to detect the void between the cement concrete pavement slab and its foundation by Benkelman beam method. Simulation results show that the deflection and joint load-transfer ability are the necessary and sufficient conditions to identify the void. According to this observation, a new method to quantitatively identify the void is proposed.