A comparative study on the performance of RCC for pavements casted in laboratory and field

ABSTRACT

Due to its superior properties, usage of Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) in pavement applications gradually increases. As the compaction effort and curing conditions applied are significantly altered between laboratory and field conditions, performance of RCC may be considerably different. Therefore, studies that are carried out to compare the laboratory and field RCC performance have crucial importance. On the other hand, number of these studies are very limited. In the presented study, a RCC mixture was designed and applied to a site in Kocaeli/Turkey. Required pavement thickness was determined based on AASHTO (1993) design methodology, and performance of laboratory and field RCC (in terms of compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), capillarity, abrasion resistance, density, water absorption and porosity) were determined and compared. As a result of the study for almost all of the performance parameters decreased values were obtained for RCC when compared to laboratory specimens. This result was attributed to difference between field and laboratory compaction effort and curing conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Roller compacted concrete
• concrete pavements
• RCC mix design
• field performance of RCC
• thickness design

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality, for the support provided during the field application part of the study. The third author would like to acknowledge the financial support given by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBİTAK) during his PhD study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).