Multi-Scale Simulation of Impact of the Concrete Strength on Fatigue Life of the Water coupled Cracks on Concrete Pavement Subjected to Traveling Wheel-Type Loads

The paper presents the three-dimensional nonlinear simulation of the concrete pavement by coupling the code of the multi-directional cracked concrete, multi-yield surface plasticity modeling for soil foundation, and the mesoscale model of stagnant water inside concrete cracks to investigate the effects of the concrete strength on the fatigue life under the traffic loads. The pore water inside uncracked concrete is assumed to an isotropic manner. Meanwhile, after cracking, the pore water pressure becomes anisotropy in the concrete pore (capillary and crack gaps). Under traffic moving, cracks may open and close. Upon closing, the water pressure inside cracks significantly rises. The damage is thus accelerated. In view of this issue, a range of water-to-cement (W/C) ratios in the pavement to depict the high, normal, and weak concrete strength is inspected (W/Cs are from 30% to 60%). The results show the strong support of the concrete slab for pavement structures when the low W/C is utilized due to a large number of the finer micro pores in concrete. The dragging force rooted in the permeability of pore water through the concrete micropore and the crack gap is therefore decreased. The deterioration of concrete structures under the traffic moving has dropped simultaneously.