Considerações sobre projeto e dimensionamento de pavimentos rígidos

Abstract

Road transport, which handles about 60% of the country’s goods and more than 90% of passengers, suffers from serious problems with the low quality of infrastructure in Brazil, since only 12,4% of the road network is paved, of which only in about 1% the rigid paving technique was used. This work is based on the need to optimize the investment made in road infrastructure, whether to create new roads or to rehabilitate existing ones, in addition to seeking theoretical knowledge. Its main objective is to characterize and describe the rigid pavement. In order to do so, a bibliographic survey was carried out in which basic notions of road paving are presented, the history of use of concrete pavement in Brazil, the characteristics and functions of its layers, the different types of structuring used in paving, the materials used in its elaboration, the detailed description of its constructive stages and the most commonly found defects. In addition, a comparative analysis between rigid and flexible pavement and the method developed by the Portland Cement Association in 1984 for the design of rigid pavements are presented. Through this method, the thickness of the plain concrete slab is determined for a stretch with a hypothetical volume of traffic. It was concluded that rigid pavement, compared to flexible paving, has better cost­ benefit for certain traffic flows of comercial vehicles due to the low need for maintenance during its useful life, which, in turn, is twice as long as flexible pavements, as they are designed to last at least 20 years.