Thermal buckling of pavement slabs

A continuous pavement slab subject to an increase in temperature will experience compressive stress which, if sufficiently large, can cause an uplift buckling failure. In contrast with the more familiar and relatively simple buckling of columns, this thermal uplift buckling of pavement slabs will generally occur with little warning, possibly with considerable violence, and at temperatures that have the undesirable feature of being very sensitive to the precise forms and magnitudes of any small initial out-of-flatness of the slab. This paper discusses the mechanics involved in the uplift buckling of slabs and describes the analysis for buckling as two separate modes. The first mode is similar to that which could be experienced in a one-dimensional beam and controls the thermal buckling of components such as railway lines, sub-sea pipelines and one-dimensional road pavements. This allows the second mode in the form of a dimple deformation for two-dimensional pavements to be clearly placed into the context of previous work in this field. Parameter studies show that this relatively neglected form of pavement failure could help to explain certain forms of previously experienced pavement breakup, and could provide important design constraints on future pavement design.