Restrained Shrinkage Cracking of Continuously Reinforced Self-Consolidating Concrete Roads

Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements (CRCP) are designed in such a way that the longitudinal reinforcement limits the widths of the transverse cracks in the pavement in order to prevent the water, chemicals and deicing salts from penetrating into the pavement. Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) is a new and innovative concrete type, which has been increasingly used in heavily-reinforced concrete members in the last decades due to its several superiorities, including the lack of the need for the mechanical vibration. The use of SCC in concrete pavements was proposed and tested in recent studies to increase the speed of the pavement construction and decrease its cost and labour. One of the major drawbacks of this new type of concrete is its higher amount and rate of shrinkage compared to Conventionally Vibrated Concrete (CVC). The use of SCC in rigid pavements causes the pavements to be prone to possess wider cracks with the problem being more emphasized in CRCP.” In the present study, the restraint stresses that develop in a model CRCP cast with SCC were investigated and compared to the limit stresses given in the design guidelines. The results indicated the need for the additional amounts of longitudinal reinforcement to withstand these stresses.