On the fracture of highway pavements

A B S T R A C T Using a model of a single layered foundation to describe a highway or an airfield pavement and an integral formulation, the problem of a pavement containing on-the-top layer a crack of finite length 2c is solved for the stress distribution around the crack tip. The analysis shows that the stresses possess the usual 1/e 1⁄2 singular behavior which is characteristic of crack problems. Furthermore, it is found that the stress intensity factor decreases as the magnitudes of the two foundation parameters increase. Finally, as the foundation presents more resistance to shear deformation, the critical load for crack initiation increases.