Characterization Methodology for Preformed Compression Seals

Abstract

Preformed pavement polychloroprene compression seals were analyzed using dynamic shear rheology and numerical analysis to assess the feasibility of using these techniques to develop an improved methodology for designing and characterizing preformed seals, as well as predicting their field performance. The investigation consisted of three phases: (1) dynamic shear rheological analysis of unaged and aged polychloroprene materials to obtain material property input for numerical analysis; (2) numerical analysis of one preformed compression seal web design; and (3) numerical analysis verification through laboratory compression tests of unaged and aged seal materials. The investigational results indicate advanced material modeling capabilities of finite-element analysis coupled with the material properties obtained through dynamic shear rheological analysis provide a significant capability to explore seal performance variations resulting from different joint seal geometries, material compositions, and aging characteristics. The techniques investigated accurately described the deformation of the seal and provided force-displacement relationships, including relaxation with time and stiffening with age. Additional minor refinements in the techniques developed through this investigation would result in a powerful design and field performance predictive model.