Characteristics of crack spacing and crack width movement of early-age partially continuous reinforced concrete pavement under environmental loading: A full-scale field investigation

This study investigates the crack spacing and crack width movement of partially continuous reinforced concrete pavement (PCRCP) under environmental loading. To this end, full-scale field tests were carried out in the highway PCRCP test sections. Measured data were utilized to comprehensively understand the cracking spacing of test sections. The effect of design-related variables on the active crack and passive crack width movement was evaluated by changing the design variables. The results show that the partial continuous steel bars of PCRCP have a significant restraining effect on the shrinkage of pavement slab, and its restraining effect increases with the increase of the partial continuous reinforcement length. With the decrease of active crack spacing, the number of cracks decreases and the crack width decreases. PCRCP, by improving the reinforcement method, reduces the initial construction cost and does not affect its early performance. PCRCP adopts the active crack control method to obtain uniform crack spacing, thereby improving early-age cracking behavior significantly. The crack width prediction model proposed in this study is in good agreement with the field test measured values, and it is more suitable for crack width prediction of PCRCP design variables. Based on the prediction model proposed in this study, the crack width of PCRCP can be predicted so that the early performance of PCRCP can be improved by changing the design variables. •Crack spacing and crack width movement in PCRCP are measured in full-scale field tests.•The cracking spacing of test sections are comprehensively analyzed.•Effect of design-related variables on the crack width movement are investigated.•The partial continuous steel bars of PCRCP have a significant restraining effect.•The crack width prediction model proposed in this study is in good agreement with measurement.