New Design Method and Fatigue Analysis of Rigid Pavements with Variable Thickness

A new process for the structural plate analysis has been presented that is based on the condition of stationarity of total complementary energy (equilibrium model) instead than on the condition of the stationarity of the total potential energy (con-gruence model) as usually done. Each of the two processes, asregards to energy terms, supplies one limit, one lower andanother higher, of the exact solution.The new process also takes into consideration casualphenomena of detachment from the ground. Is has also beenproposed a fatigue criterium which takes into account the realtensile biaxial state.Finally numerical analysis on some real cases have beendeveloped adopting the usual as well as the new design criteriain order to find the optimal variability of the thickness.