Vibration Absorbing Concrete Pavements

The evaluation and control of vibrations induced in the environment by the road traffic is a problem of increasing concern mainly in urban areas. Several solutions are under development to define pavement structures capable of absorbing traffic vibrations so to reduce the impact on the environment surrounding the road infrastructure. Such structure are often characterised by the use of non conventional materials. An anti-vibrating concrete pavement was recently studied for a road tunnel in North Italy were a non uniform rubber support was considered under a continuously reinforced concrete slab. A surface layer of polymer modified asphalt was considered. Conventional design approaches do not allow to consider non uniform supports under concrete slabs and an extensive study was therefore conducted to evaluate the stresses in the pavement structure. In this study a simple mcthod for the dcsign of such structurcs will be prcscntcd.