DEVELOPMENT OF NEW DESIGN METHOD FOR CONTROL OF CRACKING IN CONTINUOUSLY REINFORCED CONCRETE PAVEMENT

Abstract

This paper contains a detailed description on the crack controlling method for Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP). A longitudinal crack originated from the transverse cracks is considered as a failure criteria in CRCP. As the possibility of this cracking depends on the load transfer efficiency at the transverse crack, the crack control, namely controlling both crack width and crack spacing, is thought as a key stone in designing CRCP. This study consists of the following steps. Firstly new formulas for calculating stress in the reinforcement have been derived. By using those, crack spacing and crack width can be estimated with accuracy. And then, full scale test pavements have been constructed and the behaviour of the pavements has been monitored continuously from the construction. Finally, the validity of those formulas has been verified by various data obtained in the test pavement. By using the new formulas, it is confirmed that the position of the reinforcement adopted in this test pavement is supported to be theoretically reasonable.