Fatigue behavior of ultrahigh-performance fiber-reinforced concrete as an alternative for flexible pavement rehabilitation

Abstract

The fatigue behavior of ultrahigh-performance fiber-reinforced concrete for use as an overlay in the typical rehabilitation of a flexible pavement structure was analyzed in this study. Compression and four-point bending tests were carried out to characterize the concrete mechanical properties. Fatigue tests were performed using the four-point method, and test beams were evaluated without precracking. The specimens were subjected to constant-amplitude sinusoidal loading with a loading frequency of 10 Hz. The magnitude of each stress level was calculated as a percentage of the initial crack stress. The following results were obtained for the concrete: a compressive strength of 127.1 MPa, bending yield strength of 6.23 MPa, maximum bending stress of 9.89 MPa, Young's modulus of 38.1 GPa, and dynamic modulus of 28.6 GPa. The stress and strain at one million cycles were 6.0 MPa and 166 μm/m, respectively. The fatigue test results indicated superior properties of the ultrahigh-performance concrete to those of similar materials.