Risk prediction and analysis of horizontal cracks in CRCP under environmental loads

The formation of horizontal cracks under environmental loads is closely associated with the development of partial depth distress at early age. Experience from the past decade with the application of Continuous Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP) in Wuhan, China, has shown that partial depth distress is the primary type of early-age deterioration. In this study, a two-dimensional peridynamic model was used to evaluate the effect of various factors on the horizontal cracking of CRCP under environmental loads. The use of preset transverse cracks was adopted to avoid the impact of their random distribution on the analysis results. The results demonstrate the significant effect of temperature and shrinkage loads on horizontal cracking. The enhancement in concrete material properties, the use of two-mat reinforcement and optimised transverse crack distribution can reduce the risk of horizontal cracks. Furthermore, a new method for predicting the risk of horizontal cracks due to environmental loads has been proposed.