Evaluation of early-age strains and stresses in roller-compacted concrete pavement

Abstract

Abstract In the structural design of a roller-compacted concrete pavement (RCCP), it is crucial to estimate strain and stress developments in the RCCP slab realistically. Since the RCCP mix uses less cement and lower amount of water, shrinkage strain and concrete temperature during the hardening stage are expected to be reduced as compared to those of conventional concrete mixture, resulting in a reduction of the concrete early-age deformation and stress developments in the RCCP slab. In this paper, early-age concrete strain and stress developments in RCCP slab subjected to environmental loads were evaluated. A full-scale test section of RCCP under real climatic conditions was monitored. The early-age total strains, stress-independent strains, shrinkage strains, and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the RCCP were measured and analyzed. Using the results of measured strains, in-situ CTE and shrinkage strain, and temperature, the early-age concrete stress development is computed by incorporating a viscoelastic property of the early-age concrete. The results revealed that the shrinkage strain of the RCCP is quite low as compared to that of conventional concrete. The early-age stress developments in the RCCP slab are strongly governed by the thermal-induced stresses. Shrinkage-induced stresses were quite small and might be negligible in a preliminary estimation of early-age stress developments in the RCCP slab.