Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2025

Abstract

The present work corresponds to the development and the application of a cost-effective Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) mix design with the name M3-1.5%. Once the material was developed it was applied in the construction of a novel engineered cementitious composites ultrathin whitetopping (ECC-UTW) overlay. The overlay was constructed in May 2019 at the Pavement Research Facility (PRF) in Port Allen, Louisiana. The project was built on top of a distressed asphalt pavement corresponding to a previous project. During the construction, samples were gathered and subjected to testing after 28 days through means of compressive, uniaxial tension and flexural strength tests. The 28-day compressive and flexural strength of ECC evaluated from field specimens underperformed that of previous studies by 9.6% and 14.8%, respectively; however, deflection capacity slightly outperformed that of previous studies by 4.0%. The flexural performance of the ECC material was vastly superior to that of regular concrete exceeding the flexural strength by 92.2%. All specimens evaluated in uniaxial tension exhibited a PSH behavior after first-cracking; however, the tensile strength and tensile ductility values obtained underperformed expected values for ECC M3-15% and exhibited substantial variability. Later on, the evaluation of this overlay was performed under accelerated loading conditions through means of an ATLAS 30 machine. The project consisted of three sections: a 63.5 mm ECC-UTW, a 101.6 mm ECC-UTW, and finally, a 101.6 mm concrete UTW that served as a control. Regarding the accelerated loading results, the 63.5 mm ECC jointless section failed after enduring 76,378 passes of 40 kN (representative of a dual tire half axle load of 80 kN), which represents 76,378 ESALs. Similarly, the 101.6 mm jointless ECC UTW failed at 151,454 passes of 40 kN and 14,310 passes of 71.17 kN, which represents 331,488 ESALs. The 101.6 mm jointed concrete UTW, in contrast, failed at 150,094 passes of 40 kN and 35,299 passes of 71.17 kN, which represents 594,191 ESALs. Once the accelerated loading phase was over, a prediction model was developed utilizing finite element modeling. Additionally, coring activities were carried out to assess the bond between the ECC and the asphalt concrete (AC) substrate, revealing a sound bond between the two materials. To further enhance the understanding of the subgrade's characteristics, dynamic cone penetration (DCP) analysis was conducted. With all this information, a finite element model (FEM) for the ECC-UTW was developed. The model considers a dynamic loading of 40 kN (9 Kips) and bonded conditions with the asphalt. Different ECC thicknesses were modeled, and through careful analysis, different relationships were established to predict the critical stress response and number of cycles to failure. Finally, the model was validated with the real in-situ performance information revealing a difference of only 5.09% between the experimental and analytical results

Comments

Tran-SET Project 18 CLSU01

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