| Continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP), regardless of length, can be defined as a payment that has no transverse expansion or contraction joints except at its end and at bridges or other structures. A random pattern of transverse cracks is allowed to develope as a result of shrinkage and temperature. The pavement, since it contains very few joints, is generally smooth riding and, if the steel is properly designed, it is potentially a low-maintenance pavement. It has been observed that as the age of CRCP increased, more distresses appeared, particularly those associated with irregular crack spacing, erratic crack patterns, excessive crack widths and excessive deflections. There is a potential need for a more reliable CRCP design procedure so that the distresses can be eliminated.; The boundary element method is used in this study due to its some advantages over the domain methods i.e. finite element method. The term 'boundary element method' (BEM) is used to indicate the method whereby the external surface of a domain is divided into a series of elements over which the functions under consideration can vary in different ways, in much the same manner as in finite element method. The existing method, based on the weighted residual approach, is extended to thermoelasticity (one way coupling) for piecewise homogeneous isotropic system. CRCP's initial structural response due to shrinkage and temperature is predicted using the extended formulations. Verifications are made by comparing the results with data collected by others. Effects of selected variables are studied. A CRCP design procedure is proposed based on the analysis results.; The extended formulations indicate the applicability of the boundary element method to the reinforced concrete system. Its boundary discretization and requirement for small computational effort make it very effective for the analysis of the pavement, the analysis that generally needs lot of iterative solution processes. The proposed design procedure is found to be satisfactory. |
