Paper by Rens, Beeldens, Houben & Ren 2013
Recent field observations on several newly constructed Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements (CRCP) in Belgium have indicated that the crack pattern is characterized as low mean crack spacing (approximately 1.0 m after 2 years in-service) along with a high percentage of clusters of closely spaced cracks. Besides, field surveys also indicate that it is difficult to significantly reduce the probability of a non-uniform crack pattern, such as closely spaced cracks, meandering and Y-cracks, by slightly adjusting the amount of longitudinal steel. The non-uniform crack pattern is inevitable and common in conventional CRCP roads. Previous experiences in US have shown that active crack control for CRCP can eliminate the cluster cracks, and more uniform, crack pattern with straight cracks can be achieved. A new partial surface saw cut for active crack control was proposed and firstly adopted in the reconstruction project of motorway E313, Herentals, Belgium, 2012. This paper describes in detail the introduction of the proposed active crack control method. The effectiveness of improving the crack pattern is demonstrated by the results of field investigations