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Mechanistic Analysis of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements Considering Material Characteristics, Variability, and Fatigue. Interim Report
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Won, Moon Cheol Hankins, Keith McCullough, Benjamin F. |
| Copyright Year | 1991 |
| Abstract | In this study, a mechanistic analysis was performed to evaluate structural responses of continuously reinforced concrete (CRC) pavements to various environmental and wheel loading conditions. For environmental loads, most of the volume change stresses are caused by a transfer of stress from the steel to concrete through bond slippage between concrete and steel. The current knowledge of bond stresses is used in the development of the volume change mechanism incorporated in this analysis. Wheel load stresses depend on many factors. In this study, an effort was made to identify the relationship between wheel load stresses and transverse crack spacings. One major characteristic of CRC pavement behavior is that there is variability in the performance. A simulation model is used to incorporate the material variabilities in the analysis. A mechanistic analysis of the CRC pavement system, including the stochastic nature of material variabilities, is presented herein. A distress prediction model is developed considering fatigue behavior of concrete. The performance of CRC pavement is closely related to the variation in transverse crack spacings. There are many factors affecting transverse cracking in CRC pavement. Basically there are two types of loadings. One is environmental loading and the other is external wheel loading. Steel bars and subbase friction restrain concrete volume changes due to temperature and moisture changes. If the stresses developed by restrained volume changes exceed the tensile strength of the concrete, cracks develop to relieve the stresses. Stresses develop when a wheel load is applied, due to the bending action of the concrete slabs. In the interior condition, tensile stresses develop at the bottom of the slab. The combined effects of restrained volume change stresses and wheel load stresses induce more cracks. In the early stages of pavement life, environmental loading has a significant effect on pavement behavior. Initial cracks develop due to temperature and moisture variations. After the pavement is opened to traffic, external wheel loads play an important role in crack development. The significance of volume change mechanisms becomes small as crack spacings are stabilized. Relatively short crack spacings and decrease in bond stress due to cyclic loading contribute to the reduction in the role of volume change mechanisms determining pavement behavior. However, the effect of wheel loads on pavement behavior depends on the crack spacing distributions developed early by volume change mechanisms. Pavement distresses occur when fatigue failure reaches some of the slab segments. It is possible to evaluate the effect of two types of loads and to estimate the frequency of distresses. The major failure mode in CRC pavement is the punchout. It is due to the fatigue failure of concrete. A mechanistic model to estimate pavement life in terms of frequency of punchouts is developed in this project. This approach is a sound one, because it correlates the factors causing failures with the actual distress occurrence. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/digitized/texasarchive/phase2/1169-2.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
