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A field program of strain and deflection measurements was conducted. The objective of the program was to evaluate the effect of frozen support, tied-concrete shoulder, and tridem-axle loading on concrete pavement performance. Results of the study on the effect of frozen support are presented in this paper. Field measurements were obtained during October.1982 and February 1983 at five pavement project, sites located on 1-90 in the State of Minnesota. Measurements included edge and corner deflections and edge strains. Loadings applied were 20 kip single-axle, a 34 kip tandem-axle, a 42 kip tandem-axle, and a 42 kip tridem-axle. Theoretical analysis was also conducted using a finite element program. Study results indicate that pavement deflections and strains are greatly reduced during winter months when the support 1s frozen. Based on analysis of these results, it is concluded that the effect of axle loads applied during the winter can be considered to be only 1/7th as damaging as the same loads applied during fall month

A field program of strain and deflection measurements was conducted. The objective of the program was to evaluate the effect of frozen support, tied-concrete shoulder, and tridem-axle loading on concrete pavement performance. Results of the study on the effect of tridem-axle loading are presented in this paper. Field measurements were obtained during October1982 and February 1983 at five pavement project sites located on 1-90 in the State of Minnesota. Measurements included edge and corner deflections and edge strains. Loadings applied were 20 kip single-axle, a 34 kip tandem-axle, a 42 kip tandem-axle, and a 42 kip tridem-axle. Theoretical analysis was also conducted using a finite element program. Study results also indicate that for application to the AASHTO thickness design procedure, a tridem-axle can be considered as equivalent to a single-axle weighing about 50 percent of the tridem-axle and to a tandem-axle weighing about 80 percent of the tridem-axle. Traffic equivalence factors are presented for tridem-axles on concrete pavements.