CALCULATION OF PARAMETERS OF SMALL-SIZED PAVEMENT ELEMENTS OF FOOTPATHS AND AREAS WITH A MODIFIED UNDERSIDE SURFACE

Abstract

One of the most common solutions for the construction of footpaths, areas, adjacent territories is the use of coatings consisting of small-sized unreinforced concrete paving blocks. This choice is associated with environmental cleanliness, aesthetic appeal of coatings, the possibility of their easy disassembly and replacement of destroyed elements. To prevent deformations in pavement made of small-sized paving blocks, it was proposed to use blocks made according to new design solutions, namely, in contrast to traditional paving blocks with a flat underside surface, use paving blocks with a modified geometric base. Previous experiments indicate that the use of the proposed pavements will lead to an improvement in their qualitative characteristics. But for the manufacture of plates according to new design solutions, it is necessary to first calculate their parameters. The paper considers two variants of square-shaped paving block models in plan, but with a modified lower geometric base. In the first version, the underside surface consists of three ribbed prismatic elements, in the second, of five tetrahedral pyramidal elements arranged in a checkerboard pattern. To prevent additional costs due to the modified underside surface, it is proposed to leave the volume the same as for a similar traditional paving block with a flat base with the same dimensions and shape in plan, but reduce the volume of the upper prismatic part of the paving block by the volume of the underside surface by reducing its height lateral side. For convenient and quick calculations of the parameters of small-sized paving blocks with ribbed and corrugated (from pyramidal elements) underside surface, universal formulas have been derived that relate the parameters of heights, rib lengths, angles at the vertex in the longitudinal section and inclination angles of the elements of the underside surface, as well as overall dimensions of the paving blocks in plan. The obtained formulas are verified to determine the parameters of the considered plate models for three cases of angles (120°, 90°, 60°) at the vertices in the longitudinal section. The results of parameter calculations coincided with those that were carried out using traditional calculation methods. The developed formulas can be used to obtain the parameters of the proposed two variants of square-shaped paving blocks in plan for any values of the side of the square and the angles at the vertex in the longitudinal section of the elements of the underside surface.