Influence of geogrid on the drying shrinkage performance of concrete pavements

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of geogrid on the drying shrinkage behaviour of concrete pavements. For this purpose, two categories of concrete specimens were prepared and tested by drying them within the controlled environmental conditions, for 56days. The first category of specimens included casting and testing nine concrete prism specimens having dimensions of 75×75×280mm. These specimens were divided into three groups. The first group included three unreinforced concrete prism specimens and taken as references. The second group consisted of three concrete prism specimens reinforced with a single biaxial geogrid layer located at 20mm from the top of specimen. The last three specimens (third group) were reinforced with a biaxial geogrid layer placed at 37.5mm from the top of specimen. The second category of specimens, which was suggested in this study to simulate the behaviour of concrete pavements, consisted of preparing and testing six concrete slab specimens. They had dimensions of 30×280×280mm. The specimens of this category were divided into two groups. The first group included three unreinforced concrete slab specimens (References). The second group included three concrete slab specimens reinforced with a single biaxial geogrid layer placed at 15mm from the top of specimen. The changes in the length of the prisms and the changes in the area of the slabs were measured and evaluated. Test results obtained illustrate that, under the controlled drying conditions, the geogrid can slightly reduce the drying shrinkage strains of the concrete pavements.