Temperature effects on rigid pavements

An analysis technique, to be used in conjunction with packaged finiteelement programs, is developed for the study of rigid pavements subjected to temperature loading. For illustrative purpose, the pavement is idealized as a thin isotropic plate resting on a Winkler-type elastic foundation. Since two-dimensional plate elements are limited to linear temperature distribution through the thickness, the advantage of the proposed method lies in its capability to superimpose the effect of the nonlinear temperature distribution on the finite-element solution. This obviates the need to use three-dimensional (or brick) elements, which would significantly increase the input and execution time. Results are presented and compared for both linear and nonlinear temperature variations. The results clearly show that disregarding temperature stresses in rigid pavement design is unconservative.