Experimental Study and Performance Characterization of Semi-Flexible Pavements

Abstract

Semi-flexible pavement (SFP) is made up of a porous skeleton of asphalt mixture and cement grout. This special structure granted SFP superior strength and durability and made it a promising solution for the paving of heavy trafficked area. This paper performed in-depth study on the mechanistic behavior of SFP. Firstly, the volumetric mix design of SFP was introduced, and followed with strength, moisture susceptibility, viscoelastic behavior, fatigue life as well as rutting resistance through a series of laboratory tests. Marshall stability tests and dynamic stability tests suggested that SFP gained fair strength and rutting resistance from the curing of cement grout. Meanwhile, SFP was found not sensitive to freeze–thaw cycles through indirect tensile tests. In dynamic modulus tests, SFP exhibited significant viscoelastic behaviors. In four-point beam fatigue tests, the average fatigue lives of SFP reached 85.4 k loading repetition under 400 µε level. In Hamburg wheel tracking tests, the ultimate rutting depth of SFP was smaller than 2.5 mm. The viscoelastic behavior and rutting propagation of SFP was characterized with master curve and power function by fitting the test results. SFP was also compared with traditional asphalt mixtures in MMLS3 accelerated tests and its performance turned out to be prevailing.

Influence of Sustainable Grout Material on the Moisture Damage of Semi-flexible Pavement

“…It was also found in the previous study [45,46]. Li et al [7] revealed that the final rutting depth in the optimum SFP mixture was less than 2.5 mm. The researchers used cylindrical samples that were partially submerged in water in their investigation.…”

“…Semi-flexible pavement (SFP) also known as grouted pavement, is a hybrid pavement that combines the properties of flexible and rigid pavement and is commonly used in various transportation infrastructure projects [7]. It consists of a porous asphalt mixture (PAM) with a 25-35% void ratio injected with cementitious grout material [8].…”

The Influence of the Application Layer of Pouring Semi-Flexible Pavement Material on Low-Temperature Stress

“…Although various test methods are available for validating the relaxation modulus, the intricacy and challenges associated with the relaxation test process render it an incomplete measure of the viscoelastic characteristics of asphalt mixtures [23][24][25]. To address this limitation, this study ascertains the relaxation modulus of PSFM through dynamic modulus testing, employing the principle of time-temperature superposition [26][27][28]. This method involves the transformation of frequency domain-dynamic modulus relationship curves into time domain-relaxation modulus principal curves expressed using the Prony series.…”

Improvement of the Low-Temperature Cracking and Shear Resistance of Semi-Flexible Mixture Modified by Polymers

“…These test sections have proved that road performance of the semi-flexible material was excellent [14]. At present, the research on semi-flexible pavement materials mainly focuses on the mix design of matrix asphalt mixture and high-performance cement grouting material [15][16]. In general, the volume method is used for the gradation design of matrix asphalt mixture, and the optimal asphalt-stone ratio is determined by drainage and scattering tests.…”