BLOWUP OF A CONCRETE PAVEMENT ADJOINING A RIGID STRUCTURE

The main cause of concrete pavement blowups are axial compression forc es induced into the pavement by a rise in temperature and moisture. Re cently, Kerr and Dallis and Kerr and Shade presented analyses based on the notion that blowups are caused by lift-off buckling of the paveme nt. The cases analyzed were: (1) continuously reinforced concrete pave ments and (2) concrete pavements weakened by a transverse joint or cra ck. The present paper contains an analysis of another case, when a lon g continuously reinforced concrete pavement adjoins a rigid structure, like a bridge abutment. The analysis is similar to the one used by Ke rr and Shade. The resulting formulation is non-linear and is solved ex actly, in closed form. The obtained results are evaluated numerically and are compared with those of a long continuously reinforced pavement , in order to show the effect of the rigid structure on the pavement r esponse.