Use of Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (UHP-FRC) for Fast and Sustainable Repair of Rigid Pavements

摘要

This paper presents a new methodology, which enables streets, roads, highways, bridges, and airfields to use an advanced fiber-reinforced concrete material, which can delay or prevent the deterioration of these transportation infrastructure when subjected to traffic and environmental loadings. The major problem of plain concrete is that its service life can considerably reduce due to weather and loading. As a result, it requires frequent repair and eventual replacement, which consumes more natural resources. Ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHP-FRC) introduces significant enhancement in the sustainability of concrete structures due to its dense microstructure and damage-tolerance characteristics. These characteristics can significantly reduce the amount of repair, rehabilitation, and maintenance work, thereby giving the transportation infrastructure a longer service life. This research addresses the strong need to develop fast and sustainable UHP-FRC materials for pavement repair that can be easily cast onsite without special treatments. This avoids any major changes to current concrete production practice and accelerates the use of UHP-FRC materials. This research investigated a new method for concrete repair by combining precast UHP-FRC panels with a small quantity of cast-in-place UHP-FRC for pavement repair without any dowel bars. Experimental results proved the feasibility of using this new method for fast pavement repair.