Welcome to MCD2016, the 8th RILEM International Conference on Mechanisms of Cracking and Debonding in Pavements (MCD2016) held in Nantes (France) on June 7-9, 2016. This conference has been hosted by the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, development and network (Ifsttar). 

RILEM Bookseries volume 13, 2016 - doi: 10.1007/978-94-024-0867-6

FilMeZoArT show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUEvbyPr-f0

Many thanks to all the MCD2016 participants from all over the world that have shared with us excellent scientific and friendly moments. Some presentations are posted onto this website such as some great keynote lectures, Welcome words from Ifsttar & Rilem Cluster F information. Some presentations coming from the 4 MCD2016 workshops are available and may be downloaded here.

Following MCD2016, based on both the quality of the 6-page short paper published in the Springer proceedings (See here the Springer Self-archiving policy) and the quality of the presentation as evaluated by the designated session chair, 21 extended version have been finally accepted in thematic issues of the 3 journals: RMPD (Vol. 19, issue 3 (in Press), 2018), EJECE (Vol.11, issue sup1, August 2017) , ASTM International - JTE (Vol. 45, issue 6, Nov. 2017)

2018 RILEM TC 241_MCD NEWS:  Publication of the State-of-the-Art of the RILEM TC 241-MCD - Editors: Buttlar, W.G., Chabot, A., Dave, E.V., Petit, C., Tebaldi, G. (Eds.) - DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-76849-6

A pavement is a complex structure composed of several layers made up of different types of heterogeneous materials. This multilayer system rests on a semi-infinite soil and is subjected to severe climate variations and heavy traffic loads. In their lifetime, pavements undergo degradation due to different mechanisms of which cracking is among the most important. To appraise this type of degradation in mechanical analyses, boundary conditions applied to the pavement structure must be known. Moreover, the damage and the fracture behavior of all the material layers as well as interfaces must be understood.

 The purpose of the 8th Rilem international conference is to present the results of TC 241-MCD as well as the latest advances in research to analyze mechanical damage and its detection in multilayer systems. This will favor discussions between different research communities to help apply these advances to pavement structures. Eventually, the aim is to be able to better detect the initiation and the propagation of cracks in pavement and also to have tools that make possible the search for technical solutions able to prevent (or to limit) cracking in usual and emergeing structures.

 The event is coordinated with the activities of the Rilem TC 241-MCD (2011-2016), that aims at developing a deeper fundamental understanding of the mechanisms responsible for cracking and debonding in asphalt concrete and composite (e.g., asphalt overlays placed on PCC or thin cement concrete overlay placed on asphalt layer) pavement systems. See also the MCD2016 Greetings from the Emeritus Professor AAA Molenaar.

History of the 7 previous Rilem conferences linked to MCD2016

 Prior to 2000 and at the initiative of the RILEM Technical Committee (TC) 97- GCR (application of Geotextiles to Crack prevention in Roads) leaded by Louis Francken, a series of four international RILEM conferences on "Reflective Cracking" was held in Liege (RC1989) (RC1993), Maastricht (RC1996) and Ottawa (RC2000). The objective was to present up-to-date information on the rehabilitation of cracked roads with bituminous overlays which was the solution adopted worldwide to delay the cracking propagation in pavements (see the TC 157-PRC document).

 To approach cracking problems in pavements in a more general sense, the scope of the conference was extended to other modes of cracking modes such as fatigue, ageing or top-down cracking. Then, a successful series of three conferences on “Cracking in Pavement” was held in Limoges (CP2004 - Proceedings - from Rilem), Chicago (CP2008 - Proceedings) and Delft (CP2012 - Proceedings).

 French version