Designs of Abrasion Resistant and Durable Concrete Pavements Made with SCMs for Cold Climates

Abstract

Rutting from studded tire wear is a typical pavement distress in cold climates such as that of Alaska and other northern states. Current state-of-the-art advancements in material technology and concrete pavement design have allowed for implementation of improved materials and concrete pavement sections that are more resistant to rutting. The addition of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) has been identified as one effective way to produce concrete pavements with better abrasion resistance. The objective of this study was to identify and develop concrete pavement mix designs containing SCMs that can provide excellent abrasion resistance and durability to address rutting from studded tire wear and accommodate extreme climate conditions in cold regions. This study involved two phases of work. During Phase I, a series of ternary mixes containing silica fume with either slag or class F fly ash were produced and tested. The results were statistically analyzed using Minitab version 19.2.0 to identify mix designs with good performance in terms of workability, compressive strength, and flexural strength requirements for pavement applications. In Phase II, the mechanical properties and durability of concrete specimens with selected mix designs from Phase I were further evaluated to identify the optimum mix design with SCMs. This included tests for compressive strength, drying shrinkage, abrasion resistance, and other dualities such as scaling resistance to deicer salts, freeze-thaw resistance, and chloride ion penetration resistance. In terms of the properties evaluated within this study along with a cost analysis, five mixes, including four optimal mixes and the control, all provided good performance, but a quaternary mix design containing primarily silica fume and slag (SL12 SF4 FA1 mix) appeared to provide the overall best performance considering strength, durability, abrasion resistance, and cost.