Mechanical performance of pavement structures with paving slabs – Part I: Full-scale accelerated tests as validation for a numerical simulation tool

• The New Mobile Load Simulator is applied to different paving slab structures.
• Reliable data is obtained form strain gauges and soil pressure cells.
• Thus, the application of this testing method can be recommended.
• A perfect basis for the validation of a numerical simulation tool is obtained.

In recent years, pavement structures with paving slabs have gained importance, especially in urban trafficked areas, because they provide more design options and have great potential with regard to durability and low maintenance compared to flexible pavements. In order to exploit this potential, an accurate and reliable performance prediction by means of appropriate design concepts is necessary. Contributing to this topic, a numerical simulation tool was developed and its performance evaluated by means of full-scale accelerated pavement tests (APT).Within this paper (Part I of this work), the APT using the New Mobile Load Simulator (MLS10) is presented. The APT program was carried out by the Swiss Federal Laboratories of Material Science and Technology on four test sections with concrete slabs of different dimensions. Two of them were instrumented with soil pressure cells and horizontal strain gauges in order to assess the primary response under the 65 kN wheel load. With a loading speed of 22 km/h under a super single tire, up to 38,400 load passes per day could be simulated on the test sections. With a frequency of the measuring sensors of 100 Hz, the stress peaks in the concrete slabs as well as at the top of the upper base course and the subgrade were recorded during the whole testing period. Overall, a very successful test execution has led to valuable and reliable data, which will be used to assess and validate the performance of a numerical simulation tool.