Enhancement of Rigid Pavement Capacity Using Synthetic Discrete Fibers

Abstract

Adding synthetic discrete fibers to unreinforced rigid pavements has been significantly increased during the last decades. Synthetic fibers improve flexural capacity, toughness, fatigue resistance, and durability, and reduce crack width. Most design methods of rigid pavements adopted modulus of rupture (i.e., flexural strength) as the primary parameter in the input design process. The elastic modulus of rupture, which has calculated depending on ASTM C78 formula does not reflect the benefits of the synthetic fiber. The effective modulus of rupture (MOR’) has been proposed to quantify the added capacity of fibers over unreinforced concrete, which is calculated depending on the equivalent flexural strength. This study aimed to determine the flexural capacity of rigid pavement, which included filtrated polypropylene discrete fibers. The concept of the effective modulus of rupture was adopted to calculate the capacity of rigid pavements. Adding Polypropylene in concrete reduced the compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, elastic modulus of rupture, while improves effective modulus of rupture and flexural toughness.