Asphalt plug joints (APJs) have been used worldwide because of its low cost, ease of installation and repair, low instance of snowplow damage, low traffic noise and ride comfort。 The service life of APJs is relatively short。 Extending the service life is thus becoming necessary by considering improved materials, structure design and performance testing。 This paper provides a review on the field performance, materials used, test- ing methods and installation procedures of APJs。 The literature review shows that the performance of APJs varies significantly worldwide。 APJs are damaged and failed due to different mechanisms and performance based material specifications are needed to develop in accordance with the failure mechanisms。 The joint structure can be optimized to reduce the concentrated stress and strain at the critical locations based on finite element analysis。 APJs are simple but require careful construction, installation and quality control to ensure the good performance。 It indicates that APJs can perform satisfactorily by taking into account proper joint design and material selection, suitable testing evaluation and careful field installation。68731

Contents

1。 Introduction 106

2。 Application and performance 107

3。 Materials and testing methods 108

3。1。 Binders 108

3。2。 Aggregate 110

3。3。 Joint mixtures 110

3。3。1。 Low temperature properties 110

3。3。2。 High temperature property 110

4。 Construction issues 111

5。 Structural improvements 111

6。 Summary and conclusions 113

Acknowledgements 113

References 113

⇑ Corresponding author。 Address: Room 309, State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, Wuhan University of Technology, Luoshi Lu 122, Wuhan 430070, China。 Tel。: +86 (0) 27 87162595; fax: +86 (0) 27 87873892。

⇑⇑   Co-corresponding author。

E-mail addresses: molt@whut。edu。cn (L。 Mo), xyj502008@gmail。com (Y。 Xie)。

1。 Introduction

An expansion joint on a concrete bridge deck is a relatively small and cheap component in a bridge。 This usually results in insufficient  attentions  on  joint  design,  material  selection      and

0950-0618/$ - see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd。 All rights reserved。 http://dx。doi。org/10。1016/j。conbuildmat。2013。03。089

107

Fig。 1。 Typical distress types of APJ reported by Partl (GA: gussasphalt; PBM: polymer–bitumen  menbrance)。

installation。 The service life of expansion joints in road bridges is usually much lower than expected。 Many maintenance problems caused by faulty joints are frequently reported [1–4]。 Bridge joints can be the bridge elements that lead to the greatest deterioration and the highest repair costs。 The maintaining work also results in a great influence on traffic unblocking and safety。 It was reported that the cost of maintaining expansion joints could reach 7–25% of the global maintenance costs of bridges  [3]。