ABSTRACT
Ultra-Thin Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (UTCRCP) is an innovative pavement type researched and developed in South Africa. It consists of generic concrete pavement substructure overlain with thin, heavily reinforced concrete layer. Centrifuge modelling was used to study the response of UTCRCP to loading. This paper describes three model configurations used to study the response and reports the construction techniques used for tenth scale modelling of pavements. The pavement system was simplified by using compacted silica sand to construct the pavement layers supporting concrete surfacing. Cyclic loading was applied using line loads on a plane strain model, point loads on a three-dimensional model and a moving axle load on an additional three-dimensional model. Although similar behavioural patterns were observed for the different test setups, each setup provided unique information that can be used to understand better the behaviour of UTCRCP under cyclic wheel loads.
