Impact resistance of concrete pavement surface reinforced with fibre mesh

ABSTRACT

The surface layer of military airfield pavements is prone to damage, including cracking, abrasion, and spalling. It is proposed to strengthen the pavement mortar layer by laying fiber mesh to solve these issues. In this study, three meshes of carbon fiber, aramid fiber, and basalt fiber were selected for surface reinforcement across six pavement slabs of 1.5m (length) × 1.5m (width) × 0.25m (height). The drop hammer impact test was carried out on the six pavement slabs. The test data were analyzed using impact times, crack development characteristics, and development models on the surface deflection as evaluation indices. The results show that the fiber mesh can effectively improve the impact resistance of concrete pavement slabs. Aramid fiber mesh best strengthened the pavement surface, whereas the basalt fiber mesh had the least strengthening effect. However, the mesh size has a negligible influence on the impact resistance of concrete pavement slabs. The effect of fiber mesh on improving the impact resistance of the concrete pavement slab corner was greater than that of the concrete pavement slab edge midpoint. Considering the performance and cost indicators, within the scope of the study, aramid fiber mesh is the most suitable for surface strengthening of airfield concrete pavement.

KEYWORDS:

• Airfield pavement
• surface reinforcement
• fiber mesh
• impact resistance
• drop hammer impact test

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant number2020M671485), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant numberBK20200429), Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province (grant number2020JQ-474), Traffic Construction in Tongling (grant number20210023).