Crack Behavior in Asphalt Composite CRCP with Basalt Fiber Reinforcement

Abstract

Basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) bars are corrosion-resistant and have potential to be used in continuously reinforced concrete pavements (CRCP). In this paper, the layout of an asphalt composite CRCP test section with BFRP bars at 0.5% is presented. This 8m wide by 250m long, two lane test section has been constructed on G330 National Road in Zhejiang Province, China. A number of instruments, such as temperature sensors and strain gages, were installed to monitor the performance of the test section. An analytical model is introduced to predict the crack behavior of CRCP with BFRP bars compared to conventional CRCP with steel reinforcement. According to the observation before placement of the 10cm asphalt layer, the crack spacing ranged from 3.5m to 5m with crack widths of 1.3mm to 1.4mm, which agreed reasonably well with the predicted values from the analytical model. For similar crack widths as steel-reinforced CRCP, a higher reinforcement ratio is required.