Alternative Laboratory Test Method and Correlations to Estimate Modulus of Rupture of Cement-Treated Base Materials

Chemically stabilized base and soil layers including cement-treated aggregates are widely used to provide long-term support for pavement structures on the Texas highways. This is more prevalent especially with the recent surge in the heavy truck-traffic loading in the energy-sector impacted areas of south-central Texas. With the use of stabilized layers however, accurate characterization of the load-associated fatigue behavior in the pavement structure, quite often, becomes a complicated technical issue. The primary input required in the mechanistic-empirical (M-E) design procedures to predict the fatigue cracking in stabilized layers is the 28-day flexural strength (or Modulus of Rupture, MoR). The AASHTO Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) and the Portland Cement Association (PCA) recommend using the 7-day Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) to estimate the MoR for input Level 2 analysis. This paper presents an experimental study to evaluate MoR-UCS relationships and develops a new predictive model to improve the estimation of MoR using three standard Texas base materials, treated with three cement contents (2, 3, and 4%). Also, a new test method based on the indirect tensile (IDT) strength test was proposed to reduce test materials and resources required to run the MoR and UCS tests. New MoR-UCS relationship model developed in the study exhibited improved estimation of the MoR values. As well, the strong correlation between MoR and tensile strength obtained from newly formulated IDT test method indicated the possibility of estimating MoR required to predict the fatigue life of cement-treated base materials for the M-E design procedures.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFS80 Standing Committee on Stabilization of Geomaterials and Recycled Materials.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Lee, Sang Ick
  • Faruk, Abu N M
  • Hu, Xiaodi
  • Haggerty, Brett
  • Walubita, Lubinda F
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
• Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Correlation analysis; Fatigue cracking; Flexural strength; Mechanistic-empirical pavement design; Modulus of rupture; Tensile strength
• Identifier Terms: Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide; Portland Cement Association
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cement-treated aggregate; Cement treated bases; Indirect tensile strength; Unconfined compressive strength
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Highways; Materials; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01622833
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 17-02191
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 23 2017 4:05PM