ANALYSIS OF NEAR-CORNER STRESSES IN CONCRETE PAVEMENT STRUCTURE

In the light of the fact that the corner break occurs frequently in concrete pavement slab on rigid or semi-rigid base in China highway, a double-layered structure model with unequal planar dimensions resting on an elastic foundation is adopted to analyze this problem. With a rectangular load applying on the pavement slab corner, the stresses and deflections in the pavement structure are obtained by employing half-space foundation and Winkler foundation assumptions, and a transformation relationship between half-space foundation and Winkler foundation is then established according to the equivalence rule of maximum stress or deflection. In addition, the influence of base extension on stresses in the pavement and the base itself is analyzed, and a set of approximate formulas for base extension coefficients are provided accordingly. Subjected to a rectangular load on the pavement slab corner and a temperature gradient through slab thickness simultaneously, the difference of stresses in the pavement is studied by using the coupling method and the superposition method, and the effects of void underneath pavement slabs (contact stiffness weakening between pavement and base), joint load transfer capacity on stresses and deflections in the pavement structure are discussed.