Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) for Asphalt Rehabilitation – Feasibility stage with nonlinear finite element modeling

Abstract

Rehabilitation of existing flexible pavement has become more and more frequent and expensive, due to exponential increase of traffic and bitumen fluctuation. On damaged flexible pavement (asphalt pavement), rigid overlay solutions are usually proposed, such as CRCP or JPCP (bonded or unbonded). The ultra-thin overlay of a strain-hardening cement-based composite, so-called Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC), exhibits high durability would be also suitable for asphalt pavement overlay application. Its high ductility, which translates to higher flexible strength, can not only significantly enhance higher durability but also potentially eliminate dummy joints in conventional joint plain concrete overlay pavement. In the first stage of this project, the behavior of ECC on the top of asphalt pavement was investigated, through the nonlinear behavior Finite Element Modeling, where some critical parameters such as the ECC thickness, the shrinkage-induced, the reflective cracking, the end horizontal movements, the punch-out or buckling by hot weather were taken into account. The results from modeling show very promising potential applications of ECC, which will be developed in the next stage.