Field Implementation and Monitoring of Behavior of Economical and Crack-Free High-Performance Concrete for Pavement and Transportation Infrastructure Constructions – Phase II

Economical and crack-free high-performance concrete (Eco-HPC) is a new class of environmentally friendly and cost-effective high-performance concrete (HPC) that is made of low binder content, high volume of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and shrinkage mitigating materials. The initial phase of research that involved an extensive laboratory investigation indicated that the designed Eco-HPC can secure high resistance to shrinkage cracking, and high strength and durability. The aim of this project was to validate findings of the previous research via field implementation and develop guidelines for the use of Eco-HPC for sustainable transportation infrastructure construction. Two classes of Eco-HPCs were developed for field demonstrations: Eco-Pave-Crete made for pavement construction and Eco-Bridge-Crete for bridge construction.  Compared to the MoDOT reference mixture, the optimized Eco-HPC mixtures developed for pavement and bridge applications exhibited approximately 40% lower embodied energy and 55% lower global warming potentials. The use of the proposed Eco-HPC mixtures could lead to reductions of about 4.7% of agency costs and 17.3% of the total life-cycle cost for bridge deck construction and 3.2% of agency cost and 6.2% of the total life-cycle cost for pavement construction in high traffic conditions.

VIEW FINAL REPORT

Report number: cmr 19-004
Published: March 2019
Project number: TR201703
Authors: Kamal H. Khayat (P.I.), Iman Mehdipour and Zemei Wu
Performing organization: Missouri University of Science & Technology

Field Implementation of High-Volume Recycled Materials for Sustainable Pavement Construction

The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of producing sustainable concrete materials for rigid pavement construction using high volume of recycled materials. The goal was to replace 50% of all solid materials in the concrete with recycled materials and industrial by-products. This included the replacement of cement with at least 50% supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and aggregate with 50% recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). Nine optimized mixtures from the first phase of the project that exhibited satisfactory performance were selected for the construction of single layer and two-lift rigid pavement systems. Life cycle cost assessment indicated that sustainable concrete with optimal SCMs and RCA can lead to cost savings of 17.6% of agency costs, 12.1% of user cost, 12.1% of social cost, and 17.5% of total life cycle cost. The development of a database and analysis using artificial intelligence was performed to quantify the properties of concrete as a function of RCA characteristics. Test results obtained through the case study indicated that the reduction in the modulus of elasticity (MOE) of pavement concrete can be limited to 10% when the coarse RCA has a water absorption lower than 2.5%, Los Angeles (LA) abrasion less than 23%, or oven dry specific gravity higher than 156 lb/ft3 (2500 kg/m3) for concrete made with 100% RCA replacement rate. The water absorption, specific gravity, and LA abrasion mass loss of RCA were found to categorize the RCA quality and resulting engineering properties of concrete made with RCA. The selection of RCA with a lower water absorption and LA abrasion mass loss and a higher oven dry specific gravity corresponded to a higher quality of RCA that can produce concrete with greater mechanical properties.

VIEW FINAL REPORT

Report number: cmr 19-005
Published: March 2019
Project number: TR201702
Authors: Kamal H. Khayat, P.I. and Seyedhamed Sadati
Performing organization: Missouri University of Science & Technology