ABSTRACT
Concrete pavements are often idealized as beams or plates on an elastic foundation. Numerous hypothetical springs placed at the bottom of the beam/plate represent the elastic foundation for such models. In this chapter, first the analysis of a beam resting on an elastic foundation is presented, followed by analysis of a thin plate resting on elastic foundation. Further, it is discussed how the plate theory can be utilized for analysis of an isolated concrete pavement slab (of finite dimension) resting on a base/sub-base.
