RECENT INNOVATIONS AND PRACTICES OF PAVING FABRIC SYSTEMS TO REDUCE REFLECTIVE CRACKING

摘要

Pavement rehabilitation is rapidly becoming one of the most important issues facing many highway departments. Asphalt concrete overlay is one of the commonly used methods for rehabilitating deteriorated pavements. One major type of distress influencing the life of an overlay is reflective cracking. Reflective cracking in the overlay allows water to percolate into pavement structure and weaken subbase, and contributes to many forms of pavement deterioration, including increased roughness and spalling. Although these nonwoven fabrics have generally been successful in asphalt overlay applications, there is no synthesis to their performance. In the past, the role of paving fabrics to reduce reflective cracking has not been clearly evaluated. As a result, there is a lack of consistent considerations of paving fabric option in pavement management systems. In this project, applications and effectiveness of stress-relieving interlayers, known as paving fabrics, to reduce reflective cracking is synthesized. Basic functions of paving fabrics, long-term performance, and recent innovations are discussed. In addition, a survey of the current paving fabric applications in the State of Mississippi was conducted to determine the various practices and performances of the paving fabric systems to reduce reflective cracking. The field performance of overlays using fabric interlayers has generally been successful, although there have been cases where the paving fabric systems provided little or no improvements. A summary of state-of-the-art practices as well as possible directions for future research is reported.