Abstract
The technological innovation of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) that contains a significantly reduced amount of reinforcement and the same fundamental behavior as CRCP is called advanced reinforced concrete pavement (ARCP). This new concept of a rigid pavement structure is developed to eliminate unnecessary continuous longitudinal steel bars of CRCP by using partial length steel bars at predetermined crack locations. In Belgium, partial surface saw-cuts are used as the most effective crack induction method to eliminate the randomness in early-age crack patterns by inducing cracks at the predetermined locations of CRCP. The reinforcement layout of ARCP is designed based on the distribution of steel stress in continuous longitudinal steel bar in CRCP and the effectiveness of partial surface saw-cuts as a crack induction method. The 3D finite element (FE) model is developed to evaluate the behavior of ARCP with partial surface saw-cuts. The early-age crack characteristics in terms of crack initiation and crack propagation obtained from the FE simulation are validated with the field observations of cracking characteristics of the CRCP sections in Belgium. The finding indicates that there is fundamentally no difference in the steel stress distribution in the partial length steel bar of ARCP and continuous steel bar of CRCP. Moreover, ARCP exhibits the same cracking characteristics as CRCP even with a significantly reduced amount of continuous reinforcement.
Highlights
Early-age cracking inevitably occurs in concrete pavements because of the temperature differences and stress development during the hardening process of concrete [1]
The continuous joints repairing throughout the life span of jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) originates the concept of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) [2,3,4,5,6,7]
The key factor affecting the development of early-age cracking in CRCP is the resistance to the change in length of the concrete slab [59]
Summary
Early-age cracking inevitably occurs in concrete pavements because of the temperature differences and stress development during the hardening process of concrete [1]. For this reason, transverse joints in jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) are intended to relieve the stresses in the concrete slab caused by environmental loading. The continuous joints repairing throughout the life span of JPCP originates the concept of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) [2,3,4,5,6,7]. In Belgium, the active crack control method in the form of transverse partial surface saw-cuts at one of the outer edges of the concrete slab has been proven as the most effective crack induction method for inducing the cracks from pre-determined locations (saw-cut tips) of CRCP [13,15,26,27]
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