A new 3D hygro-thermo-mechanical model for a concrete pavement slab is formulated, capturing its behavior from casting to long-term drying. The model includes a microprestress-solidification viscoelastic model for concrete ageing creep. Calibrations and validations are based on lab experiments and a four year continuous monitoring of a real highway slab. The results show that slab drying leads to the highest principal tensile stress on the surface as high as 3.5 MPa. Simulated temperature cycles and traffic loading yield smaller stresses. In this regard, concrete crack resistance during drying should be considered in material and structural design.

FEM analysis carried out using OOFEM software (development version from 2023/01/18), obtainable at https://github.com/oofem. Portable .exe version for Windows is provided. For browsing graphical results in .vtu and .pvd, you can use Paraview software (https://www.paraview.org/). The input files for graph creation are provided, created with Gnuplot (http://www.gnuplot.info/).