A Study on Performance of Roller-Compacted Concrete Pavement in Accelerated Pavement Tests

Abstract

Roller-compacted concrete pavement, or RCCP, is well-known for its low cost and fast construction. Through compaction, the friction induced by aggregate interlock provides additional load carry capacity at the beginning of construction. Although its construction procedure is quite different from typical conventional concrete pavement, RCCP consists of the same basic ingredients as conventional concrete pavement. The characteristics of RCCP make it an excellent alternative for port, intermodal, street, and highway applications. Even though this pavement has been used for decades, research on and experiences in its application are still limited, particularly in Korea. In order to evaluate the performance of RCCP, two phases of an accelerated pavement test were conducted. In Phase One, the performance of RCCP at two different strengths (35.6 and 30.4 MPa) is evaluated. In Phase Two, the performance of RCCP with different thicknesses (5, 7.5, and 10 cm) is investigated. The number of load repetitions to fatigue crack occurrence in each section is compared to the estimated fatigue failure determined from the fatigue equation for RCCP. The crack development in each section is compared to the crack model for jointed plain concrete pavement. Overall, it is confirmed that RCCP has equal or better performance compared to the estimation in terms of fatigue cracking.