Mechanical response of fiber reinforced concrete overlays over asphalt concrete substrate: experimental results and numerical simulation

ISLA, F.; LUCCIONI, B.; RUANO, G.; TORRIJOS, M.C.; MOREA, F.; GIACCIO, G.; ZERBINO, R.

CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 93 p. 1022 - 1033

0950-0618

Fiber reinforced concrete overlays are nowadays an alternative for repairing and reinforcing pavements.The contribution of concrete overlays strongly depends on the bond with the substrate. The fibers helpsewing contraction joints and eventual cracks and, in this way prevent the propagation of cracks alongthe substrate?overlay interface. Therefore, the addition of fibers to the overlay allows reducing repairthickness, increasing service life and improving pavements general performance.Some experimental tests performed for the development of a method to assess different fibers effi-ciency in this type of applications are presented in this paper. Substrate?overlay composite beams aretested under flexure. The beams consist of overlays of plain and fiber reinforced concretes, containingsteel and macro-synthetic fibers, applied over an asphalt concrete substrate. The numerical simulationof the beams is also included in the paper. Fiber reinforced concrete is considered as a composite materialmade of a concrete matrix and fibers and its mechanical behavior is modeled with a simple homogeniza-tion approach based on modified mixture theory. The numerical simulation can accurately reproducematerial characterization tests and predict the bearing capacity of the composite beams. Furthermore,other substrate/overlay alternatives are numerically studied. The numerical results could be useful toimprove the design of these intervention techniques