Abstract:

The mechanical responses of pavement with a crack under standard wheel load were discussed. The three-dimensional model of pavement structure with a crack was built with Abaqus6.10 program. The Coulomb friction model was used to simulate the behavior of the pavement crack under load. Surface deflections of the pavement, tension stress to the layer bottom of the base and asphalt pavement, were calculated. The result demonstrated that the tension and compression stress parallel to the crack direction along the depth of the pavement structure with crack were both increased under wheel load, and the peak tension stress of cement stabilized base appeared at the wheel load near to the crack. The pavement structure would be destroyed due to the tension stress parallel to crack first, and the capacity to transfer load and integrity of the pavement would be reduced with the crack. The impact of the crack should be taken into account in pavement structure design.

Key words: pavement structure, crack, contact, deflection, stress