Abstract
Semiflexible mixture is a composite paving material combining the advantages of both asphalt and cement concrete materials. It consists of matrix asphalt skeleton and cement mortar. Due to the different volume characters between asphalt structure and cement mortar, stress concentration always happens in this semiflexible mixture, leading to internal cracking. The objective of this study is to alleviate the internal cracking concern of the semiflexible mixture by adjusting the material components. To this end, optimal material design and numerical simulation have been conducted. Matrix asphalt structures with four different air voids were incorporated with different dosages of cement mortar. The contraction strain and expansion strain of cement mortar as well as the indirect tensile strength of matrix asphalt structure were measured. The results were input into ABAQUS for numerical simulation. The results indicated that (1) the internal stress in this semiflexible mixture is mainly determined by the contraction of cement mortar, rather than expansion; (2) larger air void of matrix asphalt structure and less volumetric variation of cement mortar reduce the internal stress; (3) once the air void of matrix asphalt structure is decided, both maximum contraction and expansion deformations of cement mortar should meet specific requirement to ensure less internal cracking. This is a practical-ready paper that provides reference for the anticracking design of semiflexible pavement.
Highlights
Semiflexible pavement material is a composite pavement material, which consists of porous asphalt structure and cement mortar. e main advantages of semiflexible pavement include high carrying capacity, high wearing resistance, high shear resistance, high water stability, and driving comfort
The insufficient volume stability resulted from the defects in the material composition and structure of semiflexible pavement leads to frequent cracking. e cracks occurring in semiflexible pavement materials can be divided into three types based on their causes: fatigue cracking under the action of traffic load, temperature contraction cracking and dry contraction cracking caused by temperature and humidity variation, and reflection cracks of semirigid base cracking [7]
The volume deformation of the asphalt mixture matrix and cement mortar cannot be coordinated. is incoordination leads to the stress concentration in semiflexible pavement, which makes the pavement more prone to crack. us, internal stress control of semiflexible pavement is critical for crack resistance
Summary
Semiflexible pavement material is a composite pavement material, which consists of porous asphalt structure and cement mortar. e main advantages of semiflexible pavement include high carrying capacity, high wearing resistance, high shear resistance, high water stability, and driving comfort. In contrast with the contraction of cement mortar, the larger the air void of the matrix mixture is, the higher the internal stress level under an expansion deformation
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