Nonlinear temperature effects on multilayered concrete pavements

This study considers a plate consisting of one or more layers, resting on a general elastic foundation, and subjected to a nonlinear through-the-thickness temperature distribution, together with arbitrary wheel loads. The resultant bending stress distribution in the plate is presented as the sum of the bending stresses due to the applied loading and to an equivalent linear temperature gradient, plus the pure thermal stresses due to the nonlinear part of temperature distribution. The resulting algorithm has been implemented into finite-element code ILSL2, capable of accommodating one- or two-layered slabs with a temperature distribution through the individual layers described by a linear function, a quadratic function, or explicitly provided by the user at a number of individual depths. Several examples are used to illustrate application of the method.