Performance of a UHPFRC overlay in the rehabilitation of a typical asphalt pavement structure

This study determine the mechanical performance of a 40 mm thick overlay using UHPFRC (Ultra High-Performance Concrete) as the outer surface for restoring a flexible pavement structure. A 30 m long test section was built, divided into two 15 m sections. Section 1 was restored with a 60 mm overlay of Hot Mix Asphalt -HMA- and Section 2 was restored with a 40 mm overlay of UHPFRC without intermediate transverse joins. The two sections were instrumented with pressure cells in order to evaluate the vertical load in the inner fiber of each restoration layer. The mechanical properties of the materials were evaluated, the structural modeling was carried out with the falling weight deflectometer (FWD) and the Bisar 3.0 software. The structural modeling showed an 82% increase in the lifecycle for the section restored with UHPFRC. The functional evaluation of the rehabilitated structures was carried out considering parameters as: friction, percentage of cracking, rutting, international roughness index -IRI- and smoothness.