Modeling Longitudinal, Corner and Transverse Cracking in Jointed Concrete Pavements

Mechanistic analysis of jointed concrete pavements has often considered only traffic loading in tensile stress calculation. The analysis is often reduced to a single or dual wheel load positioned at a free slab edge. More advanced analyses have included environmental loading, but this is usually limited to a linear temperature differential through the slab. This type of analysis usually predicts bottom-up transverse cracking in the center of the slab. However, field data has indicated that other failure modes can also occur. This paper quantitatively demonstrates how the failure mode of jointed concrete pavements can be transverse, corner, or longitudinal cracking, originating at either the top or bottom of the slab. The failure mode depends on the loading, slab geometry, environment, and material properties. The differential drying shrinkage of the concrete was found to be one of the most influential parameters in reproducing the observed failure modes of in-situ concrete pavements.