Stresses and strains in pavement structures due to the effect of temperatures

Abstract

At its absolute amount, stresses due to the effect of temperature in the pavement structures, especially those rigid, are often of the same order of magnitude as those resulting from vehicles' load, but it happens that due to such impact many slabs become cracked before the road is handed over into operation. The temperature stresses which occur in pavement structures include stresses due to bending and buckling, stresses due to friction and hidden stresses. Stresses caused by the influence of temperature in the pavement structure during the day are generally below the strength of the component materials so they do not cause the consequences for structure. However, appearance of residual stresses and their accumulation after a sufficiently long period of time may lead to failure in structure, i.e. thermal fatigue. The paper presents the effects of temperature changes on the pavement structures in the physical and mechanical terms, and the manner in which the temperature is taken into account during the design of pavement structures.

Keywords

• pavement structure
• temperature
• temperature stresses
• design