Evaluation of concrete spall repair materials

Abstract

Maintenance and repair activities are critical to economically and efficiently sustain airfield operations with existing pavement infrastructure. Repairing spalls in Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements is a common work activity used to reduce the costs associated with aircraft damage and prolong the service life of the pavement further reducing the life-cycle costs for the pavement structure. Costs decrease dramatically for every additional year of pavement use that does not cause vehicle damage or require repeated patching or full slab replacement.Traffic performance of fourteen different concrete repair products was evaluated for repairing spalls in PCC airfield pavement. The objective of this study was to identify within these products suitable repair materials for long-term concrete spall deficiency repairs.Numerous partial-depth repairs were constructed along joints and in the interior of the test slab and backfilled with the repair products following the manufacturer requirements. After the material cured to the minimum required by each manufacturer, the repairs were trafficked with simulated F-15E aircraft traffic to monitor their long-term performance over successive aircraft loadings. The field evaluations of the selected repair products considered how well each product performed under simulated F-15E traffic as well as the ease of mixing, placing, and finishing.