01594470

Component

Concrete with cracks or high permeability facilitates the penetration of chloride solutions. These solutions also seep through leaking joints and penetrate into the substructure elements and beam ends, resulting in extensive corrosion damage. Joints can be eliminated by constructing continuous decks or closure pours, and infiltration through concrete can be minimized by using low-permeability concrete and fiber- reinforced concrete that controls cracks. This study investigated low-permeability fiber- reinforced concretes that use polyvinyl alcohol, polypropylene, or 5D steel fibers to control cracking in closure pours. The addition of a small amount of discontinuous fibers to a conventional concrete matrix minimizes cracking, but the cracks are still wide enough to permit the intrusion of harmful solutions. High volumes of suitable fibers used in high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete enable strain and deflection hardening. In these concretes, multiple very tight cracks (<0.1 mm wide) occur. These cracks do not allow for the ingress of water and other harmful solutions. In two adjacent bridges on I-64 near Covington, Virginia, closure pours with high dosages of the same three fibers were placed. The initial results indicate no cracking or cracking limited to a width of 0.1 mm as desired.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFN30 Standing Committee on Durability of Concrete.

01584066

16-3669

English

14p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Photos; References; Tables

Bridge piers; Cracking; Fiber reinforced concrete; High performance concrete; Latex modified concrete; Polypropylene; Polyvinyl acetate; Pouring; Steel fibers; Width

Interstate 64

Rapid set materials

Covington (Virginia)

Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-3669

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 5:36PM