An alternative to conventional concrete overlay material: Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC)

Abstract

Rigid pavement overlays have been used for construction and repair applications of structures such as highways, bridge-decks and airports for many years. Although rigid pavement overlays have advantages as long service life and high durability, problems are encountered particularly on reflective cracking and bond properties. The superior ductility with high strength and improved durability characteristics suggest that the Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) could be used as an attractive alternative to conventional concrete overlay materials. In this paper, emphasis is placed on the accumulated knowledge on rigid pavement overlay performances of high volume fly ash or ground granulated blast furnace slag incorporated ECC under typical mechanical loads associated with traffic and environment. Fatigue performance, flexural behavior, reflective cracking characteristics and bond properties (by slant shear test) between the overlay and substrate concrete were investigated as performance criteria. As a result, ECC has important potential to be used as an overlay material.