Early-Age Reliability-Based Sustainability Assessment of Concrete Pavements Under Alternative Curing Methods

Despite extensive research on concrete pavement performance, integrating early-age mechanical behavior with multidimensional sustainability assessment remains limited, particularly in tropical environments where rapid moisture loss increases the risk of cracking. Existing approaches often focus on long-term performance or isolated indicators, lacking a unified framework that links early-age reliability to economic, environmental, and social outcomes. This study proposes a reliability-based framework to evaluate early-age performance and sustainability across curing methods. Stress–strength ratio (SSR) relationships (R 2 > 0.96) were derived from HIPERPAV simulations under tropical conditions, with SSR expressed as a function of structural reliability (75–99%). Mechanical performance was linked to economic costs, environmental impacts (kg CO 2 -eq), and a social index, and integrated through a multicriteria approach. The results show that the selection of the curing method strongly influences both early reliability and sustainability. Cotton blankets maintain an SSR of about 70% even at 99% reliability, whereas the no-curing condition exceeds the failure threshold (>100%) at high reliability levels (≥95%). The single-layer curing compound provides the best cost–performance balance, while plastic sheeting and no curing perform worst. The main contribution is a transferable framework that integrates early-age cracking risk with sustainability indicators, enabling consistent evaluation of curing strategies across varying reliability levels in tropical contexts.