Methods of road surface durability improvement

Abstract

Abstract The adopted state strategy for the development of the construction materials’ industry pays much attention to the development of modern efficient transport infrastructure (Skvortsov, 2012; Urmanov, 2013). Performance of most roads in Russia does comply with the requirements of international standards. Currently, asphalt concretes are used in road construction in Russia. The standard service life of the asphalt concrete surface is equal to approximately 10 years, however, under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors it can decrease. In foreign countries, the share of asphalt concrete roads constantly decreases, and the share of cement concrete roads increases. Cement concrete roads are becoming the fundamental type of arterials. Their share reaches 50% in some European countries and 60% in the USA. In Russia, their share is so far no more than 2–3%. In 2017, according to Decree No. 656 of the Government of the Russian Federation dd. 30.05.2017, a goal was set to increase the road surface inter-repair period up to 12 years and the period between reconstructions — up to 24 years. Nowadays, asphalt concrete surfaces require repair approximately once in 5 years. Not only cement concrete surfaces but also surfaces made of alkali activated slag (cement-free) concrete with higher durability can serve as an alternative to asphalt concrete surfaces (Petrova et al., 2017; Petrova and Prokofieva, 2015). The purpose of the study is a comparative evaluation of the corrosion resistance of alkali activated slag concrete and that of Portland cement concrete in a corrosive oil-containing medium. It is demonstrated that, during five years of observation, the absorption of the corrosive medium by concrete on alkali activated slag binder turned out to be 3.8 times lower than that by Portland cement concrete, which can be explained by the specifics of the alkali activated slag concrete structure. The resistance coefficient of alkali activated slag concrete in bending tests amounts to 1.15, whereas the resistance coefficient of Portland cement concrete in bending tests amounts to 0.82. Therefore, it is established that alkali activated slag concretes have a higher durability in a corrosive oil-containing medium.