Concrete Pavement Analysis in DOD’s JEDI-2D Framework

Abstract

This paper outlines the concrete pavement analysis features incorporated in the Joint Evaluation and Design Integrated (JEDI) software, a framework under development for pavement design and evaluation by agencies in the US Department of Defense. It is envisaged that JEDI will employ state-of-the-art two-dimensional finite element software for responses in rigid and flexible pavements. ILLI-SLAB had been identified as a suitable candidate for rigid pavements in JEDI by an expert panel of academics and consultants convened in 2014. It was adopted by the JEDI researchers because: (a) It is in the public domain, with unrestricted access and distribution; (b) Its source code is available for checking, enhancement and tailoring; (c) One of its senior developers serves as a full-time member of the development team; (d) The software has been thoroughly debugged and its performance has been verified as practically identical with that of commercially available competitors. During this study, changes in the ILLI-SLAB code have been made to address real or perceived weaknesses, as reported in the technical literature. C-SLAB, the revised and enhanced JEDI software for concrete pavement analysis, incorporates: (i) Elimination of subroutine duplication; (ii) Extension of options available for accommodating load transfer; (iii) Verification of curling results by comparison with independent theoretical and analytical procedures. It is found that C-SLAB produces robust results in all cases of interest to DOD. Moreover, its use in the JEDI context is enhanced by the addition of a front end for data input and an output visualization tool for results interpretation.