International Conference on Transportation and Development 2016 1122

Performance Evaluation of Reinforced Roller Compacted Concrete Pavement

with Basalt Fibers and Recycled Polyethylene in Warm Regions of Iran
Rashid Tanzadeh1; Javad Tanzadeh2; Majid Haji Hosseini3; and Mehrnaz Mirsepahi4
1
Instructor, Dept. of Road and Transportation Science and Research Branch, Islamic
Azad Univ., Damavand, Tehran 39718-78911, Iran (corresponding author). E-mail:
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[email protected]
2
Assistant Professor, Islamic Azad Univ. Science and Research Branch, I. R. Iran. E-
mail: [email protected]
3
Master of Science Student, Dept. of Road and Transportation Science and Research
Branch, Islamic Azad Univ., Tehran 1477893855, Iran. E-mail:
[email protected]
4
Master of Science Student, Dept. of Road and Transportation Science and Research
Branch, Islamic Azad Univ., Tehran 1477893855, Iran. E-mail:
[email protected]

Abstract
One of the important characteristics of developing countries is strengthening and
modernizing transportation networks including land paths. This is not possible
without using modern technology, new materials and its additives. Roller Compacted
Concrete (RCC) is a usable material in making pavement of roads. As we know the
strength and composition of roller compacted concrete is different from concrete. In
this study roller compacted concrete is assessed by specified percentage of basalt
fibers, reinforced recycled polyethylene and executive notes of this concrete. Then
provided samples are tested with regard to flexural, tensile and compressive strength.
According to the results, strength parameters of reinforced Roller Compacted
Concrete have increased. So, with regard to reducing thermal fracture, increasing
flexural and tensile strength, this composition can be introduced as one of the
modern ways in making composite pavements with less implementing thickness and
longer life-time than traditional methods.

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Introduction
Concrete mixture of cement is composed of coarse and fine aggregate. In spite of
high pushing resistance, this mixture is weak in tension (Tassew, 2014). When
pavement is under erosion and destruction, fiber concrete is used and one of its
advantages is increase in strength against fatigue, flexure and tension and control
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of low-temperature fracture (2013). Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) is a material

that is zero slumps, dry, usable in making pavement and dam and is compacted by
strong vibratory roller. Strength and mixture of RCC is different from concrete. RCC
is rarely used in pavements (A. C. Bettencourt, 2000). In recent years, the application
of RCC is growing in road pavement. In fact, mixed RCC composed of concrete,
water, and cement was implemented by similar equipment as asphalt (Marchand,
1997). This pavement RCC was suitable for high traffic with little speed (Palmer,
1987). High speed of implementation, redundancy to suture, open dowel, heat steel
in addition to high strength and suitable ductility with water percentage to little
cement was one of the advantages of this kind of pavement compared with the
common sample (Brendel, 1991). Also the level of this kind of pavement was coarse
and poor in comparison with common pavement, so it is a kind of industrial
pavement intended for site with heavy installed equipment (Rollings, 1988). Roller
concrete pavements, unlike asphalt pavements, have high strength against ductility in
heat, rutting due to heavy load passing, and destruction resulting from chemical
material. Application of RCC as base course of pavement is commercial and in line
with insuring driving with high speed on the smooth surface, 5- centimeter coverage
is implemented on the base course of concrete (Prusinski, 1997). According to
previous studies for reinforcing tensile strength of concrete, different fibers are used.
In recent years, fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) wildly is used in different
engineering courses. High endurance, suitable ductility, and strength against erosion
are important parameters of fiber reinforced concrete (Yazc S, 2007). During last
studies, steel, glass, polymer, and carbon fiber is applied in modifying concrete. Steel
fiber by increasing weight of concrete, risk of corrosion and balling effect has
reduced the efficiency of concrete (Nanni, 1991). With regard to high sensitivity of
glass fiber in alkaline environment, high cost of carbon fiber in addition to low
melting point of polymer fiber reveals the need of using new stronger fiber. New
kind of mineral fiber extracted from melted basalt is basalt fiber having
manufacturing process similar to glass fiber, so basalt fiber is cheaper and is
commercially produced (Borhan, 2012). Some advantages of basalt fiber are
modulus, high ignition degree, strength against chemical environment, surface sheer
strength, and its cheapness is similar to other fiber (Jiang CH, 2010). For the first
time in 1998, Brik and his colleagues used basalt fiber with volume percentages of
0.1%, 0.25%, 0.4% and 0.5% and it was revealed that reinforced concrete (RC) with
basalt fiber has higher energy absorption and more ductility (Brik, 1998). Basalt

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fiber, unlike steel and polymer fiber, is easily distributable in concrete. While
mixing, it has no ductility and has suitable flexibility. this fiber also has positive
effect on the increase of concrete strength (Artemenko, 2003). Having low volume
percentages it is usually used in fiber (Tumadhir, 2013). Reduction in water percent
to cement and removing low-temperature fracture are some advantages of RCC.
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With regard to 98% minimum compression percentage, strong reaction of aggregate

to aggregate transforms load from fracture and small suture and the reaction of
aggregate eliminates load transforming equipment as load of dowel. By removing
dowel of steel load and reinforced metal, the costs of maintenance and pavement
corrosion are reduced. In this study, specified percentages of basalt fiber and
polyethylene from recycled waste material in RCC are used and specifications as
flexural strength, tensile and compressive strength are reviewed.
Experimental programs
Materials
Every kind of cement can be used in RCC and the amount of cement with regard to
its application in base courses and sub-base of pavements may change from 80 to
200 kg/m3. While percentage of water weight from 4 to 7% is dry weight of total
mixture (Pitta, 1991). In this study, type II Portland cement of Neizar Company is
used. Specific characteristics of this cement are listed in Table 1.

Table1. Characteristic of Cement

Chemical properties %
CaO 64.24
SiO2 20.68
Al2O3 4.97
Fe2O3 3.69
MgO 1.53
SO3 1.98
K2O 0.82
Na2O 0.4
LOSS on ignition 1.35
Specific gravity 3.1
Specific Surface (cm2/g) 3050
Initial setting time(min) 165
Final setting time(min) 280
Mechanical properties
Compressive Strength (MPa) 3 days 26.5
7 days 35
28 days 45

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Pollyethylene from
f recycleed waste maaterial and basalt
b fiber with 25 mm
m length wiith 3
varriable percennt are used.. Physical and
a mechannical charactteristics of basalt fiberr are
presented in Taable 2 and Table
T 3.

Tabble2.Chemiccal compossition of Basalt

B fiberrs chopped stands provided by the
suppplier
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+
FeO+ O+
Na2O
SiO2 Al2O
O3 CaaO MgO 2
TiO2 hers
Oth
Fe2O
O3 K2O
O
51.6-599.3 14.6--18.3 5.99-9.4 3.0--5.3 9.0-114.0 0.8-2.25 0.8-2
2.25 0.099-0.13

Tabble3.Propertties of Basaalt Fibers

Specificc
Cut
C Tennsile Elastic
Fib
ber meter
Diam gravity Elongaation
len
ngth streength M
Modulus
typ
pe (μ
μm) (kg/m3) (%
%)
(m
mm) (M
MPa) (GPa)

Filam
ment
1
18 2
24 41000-4850 89 2.63 – 2.8 3.1
typpe

Bassalt fiber annd recycled polyethylen

p ne used in thhis experim
ment are show
wn in figuree 1.

Fig
gure1. Recyccled Polyeth
hylene (Lefft).and Basaalt Fiber (Right)

a specified in
Thee percentages of main composed elements foor implemennted RCC are
Tabble 4.

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Table4. Concrete mixture proportions

aggregate aggregate
Cement Water
Type 0-6 mm 6-12mm
(kg/m3) (kg/m3)
(kg/m3) (kg/m3)
P0 300 1020 940 0.3
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A 300 1020 940 0.3

B 300 1020 940 0.3

C 300 1020 940 0.3

D 300 1020 940 0.3

E 300 1020 940 0.3

F 300 1020 940 0.3

P0: RCC with Cement 300 kg/m3

A: RCC with Cement 300 kg/m3 and 3 kg Recycled Polyethylene

B: RCC with Cement 300 kg/m3 and 3.5 kg Recycled Polyethylene
C: RCC with Cement 300 kg/m3 and 4 kg Recycled Polyethylene
D: RCC with Cement 300 kg/m3 and 4 kg Recycled Polyethylene and 2 kg Basalt Fiber
E: RCC with Cement 300 kg/m3and 3.5 kg Recycled Polyethylene and 2.5 kg Basalt Fiber
F: RCC with Cement 300 kg/m3and 3 kg Recycled Polyethylene and 3 kg Basalt Fiber

Mixing and curing

Mixing process begins by mixing dry coarse and fine aggregates for 1 minute. Then
cement is added for 1 minute without water. Afterward fiber is added to the dry
mixture and finally fresh concrete is mixed for 4 minutes until we become sure about
fiber dispersion in concrete. After preparing RCC in short time it is sent to
implementing site. Roller concrete should be poured on the prepared level that is bed
soil and base course. This layer is similar to what is intended for common concrete
pavement and should be flatten and compressed to provide smooth and strong
surface for compression of pavements RCC without subsidence. Before pouring
roller concrete, the surface of base course should be wet, not to absorb wetness of
fresh RCC. Pavement RCC should be implemented by asphalt pavement equipment.
Pavement equipment should have necessary equipment to control levels and
prolongation and be able to implement pavement with desired density and flatness of
uniform level. Implementing devices of asphalt pavement is used by exerting
changes for implementing RCC pavement. These changes enlarge opening between

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inputs of raw materials and screed in a way that allows high volume of rigid material
to pass. It should be noticed that reservoir of input material never should be empty,
because it results in lack of uniformity in surface. Asphalt machine for exerting RCC
pavement should have one threshing bar in addition to vibratory screed. Concrete
should be poured and threshed by cement in contact with water for 45 minutes. RCC
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is poured in bands that are next to each other. New concrete should be poured at most
during 1 hour after implementing old concrete in order to consider suture as a new,
integrated and synchronized compressible. If environmental condition is not suitable,
above mentioned interval (1 hour) would be reduced. When implementing new
suture while pouring new concrete beside old concrete, level of screed of pavement
device should be adjusted on the level of Non-compacted concrete of its near band
until two bands have the same height and compressed suitably with each other.
Maximum thickness of layer depends on the capability of paver in making pavement
layer continuous and flat. Maximum thickness of non-compacted layer that is poured
is 250 mm and after compressing this thickness is reduced 20% to 30%. Minimum
thickness of layer after compressing should be 120 mm. If general height of non-
compacted layer of RCC pavement is more than paver capacity, pavement should be
poured in two layer or more. Enough connection should be made between two layers.
Maximum time interval between the end of threshing a layer and pouring and
compressing of the next layer depends on environmental condition up to half hour
(Chen B, 2005). If it is not possible to observe time interval, first a connection mortar
is exerted on the first layer. In Making two-layer RCC, thickness of first non-
threshed layer should be at most two third of overall thickness of non-threshed
pavement or maximum thickness of pour ability with paver (each that is small). Less
thickness of surface layer allows access to pavement with smooth facade level.
Prepared concrete within compressor is discharged in paver, then required height is
provided, and it is compressed by 10-ton Dual vibratory roller. First roller (without
vibration) has two passes on the poured concrete statically in order to be prepared
and to be smooth (a sweep of roller equals two passes) then several vibratory passes
are done until specified density is gained and the desirable density can be gained
after four passes or more. Then in order to reduce hole and to close surface suture,
usually some passes of movement are done by 10- to 20- ton rubber wheel roller.
Finally roller without vibration for destroying effect of rubber wheel roller or
vibratory roller is used on the surface of concrete. While doing vibratory
compression, roller operator should not stop on the construct. Best compression is
made by low frequency and high vibration amplitude with maximum speed of 2 m/h.
Also in order to prevent recess in width of pavement, roller passes should be
implemented continuously. Side edge of every concreted path remains unrolled. This
previous part is removed from concreting next path. Roller concrete has less water to
cement, so immediately after concreting, water in the fogging form is poured on the

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surface during the first 24 hours to prevent separation of concrete. Then curing of
concrete is done for one week regularly. If the project size is small, one layer of sack
can be drawn on the surface to reduce evaporation speed and the sacks is kept wet
continually.
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Experimental Sampling
Coring machine is composed of three parts: base, drill bit, electric. Its base can be
installed on every smooth surface. Drill bit of equipment is hollow cylinder with 45-
centimeter length and 1 to 6 inch diameter. For coring, drill bit rotates with a lot of
speed and, water is used for its cooling. Required volume of water fits with velocity
of bit drill and is 3 l/s on average. After sampling for compressive test, two surfaces
is flatten in cuttingly form and after weighting and measuring dimensions of standard
cylinder and core, the sample was capped from both sides (with thickness about 2
mm). For flexural samples, those with dimensions 10* 10* 35cm are implemented
first on the concrete by depth shear of samples with larger dimension of above cut
dimension, and then accurate samples 35*10*10 are prepared by cutting blades.
After coring samples by wetness and environmental condition, concrete is kept in
sacks.

Experimental test
Compressive strength according ASTM C39 standard is tested during 7, 28, and 90
days respectively. Flexural strength is done with regard to ASTM-C78 standard.
Tensile strength is done according to ASTM-C496 standard.

Results and discussion

While testing compressive strength, no kind of lamination is observed in samples,
and this is because of making bridge between fibers. After breaking simple concrete,
vertical fractures are widely formed on the surface of sample and in reinforced RCC
with basalt fiber and polyethylene, the appearance of sample after breaking remains
destructive without vertical fracture. In fact, fiber prevents extension of fracture and
appearance of sample is kept suitable by controlling extension of side fracture and by
postponing break of concrete. According to results, adding basalt fiber has no
remarkable effect on increasing the compressive strength. That is because
compressive strength of concrete often depends on the compressive strength of
cement-matrix. After adding fiber, shared surface comes to being in system that has
potentiality of fracture under pressure. By enhancing cohesiveness of fiber in
concrete, this adverse effects decrease to the least and compressive strength will be
increased. According to the latest studies, adding 0.5% of volume component of

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polyethylene fiber and carbon fiber can enhance tensile strength of concrete during
28 days 19.5% and 31.6% respectively. Fiber prevents growth and extension of fine
fracture in concrete by making strong bridges, so tensile strength of RCC is
increased. Longer fiber with better entanglement in aggregate like small bridge
increases strength of concrete while by increasing length of fiber, its uniform
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distribution in cement composition gets difficult. By increasing fiber ductility, their

tolerated tension is increased, so extension of fracture is postponed. After cracking,
Fiber like bridge prevents extension of fracture and structural failure by transforming
load to involved part of concrete. The more fiber bridges transform load, fracture
remains in stable condition most of the times and this makes toleration of tension
possible. In flexural test, common concrete is split due to fracture, but after adding
fiber, first floor of concrete sample is cracked and then it is extended up to its top.
Also it is observed that simple concrete has fragile behavior and by flexural loading,
when flexural crack occurs, simple concrete sample is split into two parts, but
extension of fracture decreases about reinforced RCC with basalt fiber and
polyethylene, so mechanical behavior and rigidness of samples is enhanced. The
mechanical test results are shown in table 5.

Table 5. Mechanical Test Results

Compressive Compressive Bending
Density strength strength strength
samples
gr/cm3 Maximum Stress Failure Stress Failure Stress
load cycle cycle
P0 2.16 16890 195 32526 1.3 10680 3.1

A 2.31 16940 211 33112 1.39 10720 3.4

B 2.33 17615 213 34220 1.43 10848 3.6

C 2.35 16890 210 33920 1.40 10799 3.5

D 2.23 18615 220 36220 1.56 11148 4.4

E 2.18 19342 230 38046 1.65 12433 4.5

F 2.18 18006 221 35330 1.55 11000 4.85

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Figure2-O
Operation deetails: Samppling and co
ompacting

nclusions
Con
In tthis study, a set of mechanical
m properties
p t
tests on thee reinforcedd concrete with
w
bassalt fiber and
a polyethhylene wass done. Results sh how that adding
a speccific
perrcentage of this
t fiber too the concreete enhancess mechanicaal function. In compariison
witth simple saamples, reinnforced conccrete with sppecific perccentage of th
his fiber shows
higher flexurall and tensile strength, but compreessive strenggth is increeased a littlee bit
durring primaryy life and it is decreaased due too lack of suuitable cohhesiveness with w
mattrix structurre of concreete.

Refferences

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L AS. Mechanicaal propertiees of glass fiber reinfforced ceraamic
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httpp://theconstru p 4781/, Citedd on
20th November, 2013
A. C. Bettencoourt Ribeiroo and I. R. de Almeidaa, "Study on
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M.

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Palmer, W. D. (1987). ‘‘Roller compacted concrete shows paving potential.’’Roads

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