Numerical Modelling of Structural Behaviour of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement

Abstract

Continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) rapidly becomes a common standard in most highway pavement design due to its high performance. Early-age cracks play a crucial role in characterising CRCP's long-term performance, hence crack formations and patterns are of interest in most highway departments. The design parameters of a CRCP are studied in this work as a parametric study on efficient design configuration. Numerical experiments were performed to produce a stress profile induced by crack initiation and long-term traffic load. This work contributes a probabilistic study on crack pattern formation from typical stress profile, including environmental and shrinkage stress, as an insight into predicting the likelihood of crack patterns initiation and propagation along the depth of the concrete slab. Studies also showed transverse steel bar plays a crucial role in determining the location of the crack formation, but a minimal effect in controlling crack width and deflection. A study on the probabilistic model helps pavement design to produce a desirable crack pattern, to perform controlled-cracks that enhance the vertical load transferability of a cracked CRCP.