The accumulated stress damage and residual life prediction of unreinforced concrete pavement with electric heating pipes

The unreinforced concrete pavement with electric heating pipes (UCP-EHP) has been widely used to melt the snow and ice on the pavement because the melting process is easy to conduct and control. However, the stress damage caused by the internal elevated-temperature is totally different from other situations, and its cumulative effects would cause severe structural failures to the unreinforced concrete pavement. To reduce stress damage, this paper investigates the above-mentioned damage characteristics under different pavement structures and working conditions through numerical simulations and develops the cumulative stress damage model to predict the residual life of the UCP-EHP. Firstly, the numerical model of the UCP-EHP was established to investigate the stress damage caused by internal thermal stress, and then it was verified by the validation experiments. Secondly, to reduce the stress damage, the stress damage characteristics were investigated under different pavement structures and working conditions through numerical modeling. Afterward, the optimum pavement structure with minimum stress damage was recommended based on the above analysis. Finally, the cumulative stress damage prediction model was derived, and the corresponding residual life of the UCP-EHP is predicted. Based on the prediction model, the residual life ratio of the UCP-EHP can be calculated when the number of cyclic heating is within 100. The conclusions of this paper can enrich the structural design of the UCP-EHP in terms of stress damage analysis.