Q. Direction of placing the main weight of reinforcement in concrete pavement?
The reinforcement of concrete pavement is typically in the form of longmesh type. A road generally has length is usually much longer than its width and so cracking in the transverse direction has to be catered for in design. Reinforcement is essential in the longitudinal direction to limit transverse cracking whereas transverse steel acts to provide rigidity to support mesh fabrics. For long mesh in concrete slab, main weight of reinforcement must be placed in the critical direction (which implies longitudinal direction) to control cracking. Though if the concrete road is quite wide, certain reinforcement has to be placed in the transverse direction in this case to control longitudinal cracking.