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Evaluation of UTW fatigue cracking using FHWA's accelerated loading facility



Title: Evaluation of UTW fatigue cracking using FHWA's accelerated loading facility
Author(s): X. Qi, T. Mitchell, J. A. Sherwood
Paper category : conference
Book title: Fifth International RILEM Conference on Reflective Cracking in Pavements
Editor(s): C. Petit, I.L. Al-Qadi and A. Millien
Print-ISBN: 2-912143-47-0
e-ISBN: 2912143764
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2004
Pages: 37 - 44
Total Pages: 8
Nb references: 4
Language: English


Abstract: Ultra-Thin Whitetopping (UTW) of asphalt pavement is a rehabilitation technique that has grown in popularity in recent years. Since the first experimental section of UTW was installed in 1991 on an access road to a landfill in Louisville, Kentucky, more than 170 UTW projects have been constructed across the United States. UTW is defined as a concrete overlay, 50- to 100-mm thick, constructed with short joint spacing and bonded to an existing, prepared hot-mix asphalt (HMA) pavement. While UTW has been used to rehabilitate a number of pavements, accurate performance appraisals are difficult on in-service pavements because loads, lateral placement of vehicles and pavement temperatures are typically quite variable. Accelerated pavement testing (APT) offers significant advantages because these factors can be controlled. Therefore, under a cooperative agreement between the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA), eight lanes of existing HMA pavement test sections were whitetopped and loaded by two Accelerated Loading Facility (ALF) machines located at the FHWA's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia. The experiment included various UTW design features (thickness, joint spacing, fiber-reinforced vs. plain concrete) and also considered HMA layer thickness and stiffness, since the existing pavements used seven different HMA mixtures. After being subjected to ALF loading from 600,000 to 3 million 80-kN equivalent single-axle loads (ESAL), the eight UTW sections showed various levels of fatigue cracking and joint faulting. This paper presents the UTW fatigue cracking performance results from the APT experiment and an evaluation of factors that significantly affected the UTW performance.


Online publication: 2004-04-15
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00


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