A Case Study of Slab Cracking and Delamination in BCO Construction at the Bush International Airport (IAH) – Part II: Causative Factors

Abstract

Bonded Concrete Overlay (BCO) construction at the Bush International Airport (IAH) has been subjected to incidences of cracking and delamination that is speculated to be mainly climatically driven due the extremely dry and windy weather conditions prevalent throughout most of the construction period. An investigation was undertaken to determine the causes of the failure of the bond between the overlay and existing pavement as well as the mechanism associated with that. This paper reports portions of the details of the laboratory and field investigation into the distress mechanism but focuses mainly on the analytical approach used to assess the probabilities of the types of cracking and delamination observed.