Using deferment improvement techniques to mitigate reflection cracks in composite pavements

• Main Authors: Raheem, Hiba M., Abduljabbar, Ahmed Subhi
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asphalt pavements; Concrete pavements; Cracks; Finite element method; Geosynthetics; Geotechnical fabrics; Interlayers; Rehabilitation; Repeated loading; Road maintenance; Temperature effects; Vertical loads
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0141209

Engineers working in the field of road maintenance and rehabilitation face the problems of reflective cracks resulting from the effect of repeated loads or the effect of temperature changes. Therefore, the research aims to conduct a laboratory study of the effect of the reflective cracks resulting from the impact of the contraction joint on the concrete pavement and its reflection on the asphalt pavement by the influence of the applied loads, Through the use of Geosynthetic (geogrid and geotextiles) and steel mesh. In this study, a composite model of concrete and asphalt was examined with an interlayer between them to find out their effect on reflective cracks by applying vertical loads (which represent road traffic). The LVDT transducer is placed under the model to measure the deflection that occurs in the model where the models were examined with the Avery device that vertically drops the loads on the models and the results showed that the performance of the Geogrid network is better than the other two types of interlayers at normal temperature. Where the percentage increase (ie: performance improvement) was 48.6%. Therefore, through the results obtained, it is clear to us that the model bears a higher load when using interlayers, and this indicates the delay of reflection cracks when repeating traffic loads and turning the cracks into softer cracks compared to the normal case These are indications that encourage the use of interlayers in addressing the ways in which this problem is faced.