Analysis Of Polymer Fibre Reinforced Concrete Pavements By Using ANSYS

ABSTRACT This paper presents an assessment of the performance of polymeric concrete with synthetic fibre reinforcement against reflective cracking in an overlay system. The performance of polymeric concrete with synthetic fibres as an overlay material is measured in terms of the load-deflection, strain-deflection and load-strain behaviour of beams of the polymeric concrete. For this purpose, five types of beams having different number of fibre wires and position are tested for flexure strength. Deflection/strains for each increment of load are recorded. In addition, cubes of plain concrete and of concrete with synthetic fibre needles were tested after 7 and 28 days for compressive strengths. Finite element models in ANSYS software for the beams have also been developed. Beams with greater number of longitudinal fibre wires displayed relatively better performance against deflection whilst beams with synthetic fibre needles showed better performance against strains. Thus, polymeric concrete overlay with fibre reinforcement will serve relatively better against occurrence of reflective cracking. Cement concrete pavements are used for heavy traffic loads throughout the world owing to its better and economical performance. Placing of a concrete overlay on the existing pavement is the most prevalent rehabilitating method for such pavements however the problem associated with the newly placed overlay is the occurrence of reflective cracking.