Application of ductile fiber reinforced cementitious composite in jointless concrete pavements

This paper presents an experimental study on the potential applications of the fiber reinforced engineered cementitious composite with characteristic of low drying shrinkage (LSECC) in concrete pavements for the purpose of eliminating joints that are normally used to accommodate temperature and shrinkage deformation. It is found that a composite slab containing both plain concrete and LSECC, with steel bars at the LSECC/concrete interface, and designed construction procedures, it is possible to localize the tensile cracks into the LSECC strip instead of cracking in adjacent concrete slab. The crucial problem that interfacial failure in composite slab was prevented by using reinforcing bars across the interfaces. Due to the strain-hardening and high strain capacity of the LSECC, the overall strain capacity and the integrity of the composite slab can be significantly improved. The temperature and shrinkage deformations can be accommodated by adequate selection on the length ratio of LSECC strip and concrete slab. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.