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. 2018 Apr 16;11(4):611.
doi: 10.3390/ma11040611.

Preliminary In-Situ Evaluation of an Innovative, Semi-Flexible Pavement Wearing Course Mixture Using Fast Falling Weight Deflectometer

Chiara Pratelli  1 , Giacomo Betti  2 , Tullio Giuffrè  3 , Alessandro Marradi  4
Affiliations

Preliminary In-Situ Evaluation of an Innovative, Semi-Flexible Pavement Wearing Course Mixture Using Fast Falling Weight Deflectometer

Chiara Pratelli et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

In the last forty, years semi-flexible pavements have been successfully employed, especially in those areas subjected to heavy and slow-moving loads. They usually comprise a wearing course of Grouted Macadam, a composite pavement material that provides significant advantages in comparison to both concrete and asphalt pavements. On the other hand, the laying process of this material is a two-stage operation, and the realization complexity leads to long realization times and high initial costs. Therefore, the use of semi-flexible pavements has been limited to some fields of application and areas. Recently, an innovative material has been developed to be used as an alternative to Grouted Macadam for semi-flexible pavement wearing course realization. This material should provide similar or even superior characteristics compared to traditional Grouted Macadam. This will reduce semi-flexible pavement construction time and avoid the need for dividing the laying process. This paper presents an experimental program involving the use of FastFWD, as an APT device, to evaluate in-situ properties and performance of this material. The achieved results regarding the validation of this new material by means of FastFWD appear promising both in terms of the material's properties and resistance to dynamic load repetitions.

Keywords: Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT); Fast Falling Weight Deflectometer (FFWD); Grouted Macadam; field-testing; semi-flexible pavement.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Particle size distribution curve.
Figure 2
Figure 2
First trial section pavement’s structure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Deflections D1, D2, and D3 (recorded at 0, 200, and 300 mm from the load plate, respectively) evolution trend normalized to 1700 kPa.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Surface moduli E0 evolution trend during FFWD test.
Figure 5
Figure 5
RTM modulus and temperature trends.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Second trial section pavement structure.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Example of recorded deflections for the test point 6.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Example of backcalculated (a) strains and (b) moduli for the test point 5 (tested at 1050 kPa).
Figure 9
Figure 9
RTM performance criteria by means of in-situ data results.
Figure 10
Figure 10
RTM performance criteria.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Surface of the test point 5 at the end of the test session.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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