Performance of Thin RCC Pavements Under Accelerated Loading

Thin Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) surfaced pavement has a potential to be used as a cost-effective design alternative for a low-volume road where heavy truck trafficking is often encountered, such as oil and gas exploration, logging and agricultural activities. In this study three full-scale RCC pavement test sections, each having a structure of 4-, 6-, or 8-in. RCC surface over an 8.5-in. soil cement base, were tested at the Louisiana accelerated loading facility. The objective was to evaluate the structural performance and load carrying capacity of thin RCC pavements under accelerated pavement testing. A sequence loading of using dual-tire loads of 9-, 16-, 20-, 22-, and 25-kip was applied on each RCC section till pavement failure of fatigue cracking. The cracking performance of tested RCC sections was analyzed. Based on the measured surface cracking and the comparison results between measured and predicted load-induced pavement responses, a RCC fatigue model for thin RCC pavements was developed, which can be used to predict pavement fatigue life under different heavy loads for the thickness design of thin RCC pavements.