Early-Age Curling and Warping Behavior: Insights from a Fully Instrumented Test-Slab System

Abstract

A concrete slab was constructed at Texas A&M University to study temperature, moisture, and creep effects on the curling and warping behavior of jointed concrete pavements under different curing conditions. A saw-cut joint was placed at the mid-slab location, where one half of the slab was cured with a standard curing compound and the other half was mat-cured. The half of the slab under membrane curing was subjected to a larger built-in curling and shrinkage than the half that was mat-cured. Because of differences in the amount of shrinkage and creep between the two curing methods during the hardening process, the two halves of the slab showed different early-age behaviors with respect to strain and vertical displacement. The dowels also affected the early-age behavior of the slab at the saw-cut joint. A linear relationship was found among measured vertical corner displacements, concrete strain, and calculated dowel bending moments. The equivalent temperature differences calculated by ISLAB 2000 present the effects of shrinkage and creep on the curling and warping behavior of the slab.