Mechanical and Durability Performances of Geotextile Reinforced Polymer Concrete as Pavement Surface Course

Shyue Leong, Lee (2021) Mechanical and Durability Performances of Geotextile Reinforced Polymer Concrete as Pavement Surface Course. PhD thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

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Abstract

Increase in traffic volume leads to the increase in pavement distress, reduction of pavement service life, and this eventually incurred in pavement maintenance and road closure. Besides that, pavement distress still occurs on maintained pavement. As such, a potential solution to this problem is polymer concrete (PC), particularly in flexible pavement. PC is a mixture of resin and aggregate. Generally, it has high engineering properties, durable and fast hardening as compared to conventional concrete. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the potential use of PC as pavement surface course and pavement maintenance course through material characterization tests. There were two types of PC examined in this research, known as geotextile reinforced PC (GRPC) and modified PC. GRPC is made of resin, limestone aggregate and geotextile. While, modified PC is made of resin, limestone aggregate, diluent and fly ash. The mix designs were developed. The resin to aggregate proportion of GRPC is 1:3, with geotextile reinforcement at 1/3 from the bottom of PC and the proportion of aggregate is 60% coarse aggregate (10.00 – 5.00 mm) and 40% fine aggregate (3.35 – 1.18 mm). While, the resin: acetone: aggregate: fly ash for modified PC is 1:0.052:5.26:1.05, and the proportion of aggregate is 60% coarse aggregate (10.00 – 5.00 mm) and 40% fine aggregate (3.3.5 – 1.18 mm). GRPC had compressive and flexural strengths of 63.57 MPa and 14.01 MPa, while modified PC had compressive strength of 45.98 MPa. Both types of PC achieved 40 MPa compressive strength as the minimum strength requirement of Road Engineering Association of Malaysia. Geotextile reinforced PC was tested for mechanical properties, durability, polishing resistance and shear strength under different testing parameters and testing ages. As for modified PC, it was tested for mechanical properties and durability. The GRPC achieved the minimum required strength when it was submerged in water, sulphuric acid, sodium chloride and used engine oil. However, GRPC did not achieve the minimum required strength when treated with sodium hydroxide. On the other hand, the modified PC failed to achieve minimum required strength when being submerged in water, sulphuric acid, sodium chloride, and sodium hydroxide. This is due to cracks formation caused by acetone. When being cured at higher temperature, GRPC portrayed a higher mechanical performance than GRPC cured at ambient temperature. For different testing temperatures, reduction of mechanical properties was determined when GRPC was tested at temperature higher than ambient temperature. As for testing under 180 thermal cycles, the mechanical properties of GRPC were reduced due to the degradation of polymer matrix. The result of skid resistance showed that resin coated skid specimens were more polished and chemical resistant as compared to uncoated skid specimens. The GRPC with rough surface, cured under ambient temperature, tested under ambient temperature, reinforced with geotextile showed a higher shear strength. Overall, GRPC exhibits comparable mechanical properties, durability, polishing resistance and acceptable shear strength through these material characterization tests. This signifies that GRPC has the potential to be used as pavement surface course as well as pavement maintenance course. Besides that, GRPC can also solve pavement distress problem, providing a more durable and longer service life.

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