The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of various crack inducers to be used in the advanced reinforced concrete pavement (ARCP) by conducting yard tests. Some of cracks are induced in ARCP to reduce the stresses in steel bars and to form more uniformly spaced cracks so that the required steel bar amount can be decreased and at the same time the pavement performance can be improved. In this study, an experimental ARCP was constructed for the length of 22.4 m, width of 1.12 m, and thickness of 0.26 m. The anchor lugs were placed at both ends of ARCP to pretend continuities of the system. 8 crack inducers with a uniform spacing of 2.8 m were installed in different manners when placing concrete, so the test length of the experimental ARCP was 19.6 m. The variables of crack inducers included the shape, material, installed depth, and installing method. The basic shape of the crack inducer represented a round face and a flat opposite face with a height of 50 mm and a width of 10 mm. The slightly different shaped crack inducers were installed for inducing cracks at both ends of ARCP. The crack inducers were primarily made of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) but a crack was induced using a polyethylene sheet inducer. The installed depths of the crack inducers were 30, 40 and 70 mm to the top of the crack inducer from the pavement surface. Most crack inducers were preinstalled on the transverse steel bar locations before concrete pouring, but 2 crack inducers were installed just after concrete placement when concrete was still fresh. The temperature measurement sensors of i-Buttons and thermocouples were installed at the top, middle and bottom of slab to measure the temperature variations of slab. The displacement transducers were also installed at the crack locations to measure the crack width movements. The experimental results showed that the cracks were induced at all the locations where the crack inducers were placed. In addition to the induced cracks, just one crack was formed naturally. The crack patterns on the surface of pavement were all comparable. The crack width measurement data showed that there were slight differences in the crack width movements among the cracks but all the cracks including both the induced and naturally formed cracks moved little within a 0.1 mm range. Therefore, any type of the crack inducers employed in this study can be used to initiate cracks in ARCP.

• Young Kyo Cho(Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Korea)
• Beom Keun Park(Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Korea)
• Seong-Min Kim(Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Korea)
• Junho Lee(Dagil ENC, Seoul, Korea)