Fatigue Response of Industrial Waste Mixes for Use as Cemented Base Materials in Flexible Pavement

• Published in: International journal of geosynthetics and ground engineering Vol. 8; no. 5
• Main Authors: Pai, Rahul R., Patel, S., Shahu, J. T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.10.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Building Materials; Compressive strength; Copper; Engineering; Environmental Science and Engineering; Fatigue failure; Fatigue life; Fatigue tests; Flexible pavements; Flexural strength; Fly ash; Foundations; Geoengineering; Hydraulics; Impulse loading; Industrial wastes; Lime; Mixtures; Modulus of rupture in bending; Nondestructive testing; Original Paper; Shear strength; Slag; Utilization of Recycled Waste Materials in Ground Engineering Applications; Flexural modulus; Fly ash; Fatigue life; Falling weight deflectometer; Steel slag; Copper slag; Field study
• ISSN: 2199-9260; 2199-9279
• DOI: 10.1007/s40891-022-00407-w

The fatigue response of cemented base layers is very essential in assessing the required maintenance frequency and the life cycle of bound layers. The flexural properties of industrial waste mixes, namely, steel slag–fly ash–lime (SFL), copper slag–class F fly ash–lime (CFL), and copper slag–class C fly ash (CCF) mixes are highlighted in this study. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of 0, 7, 14, 28, 90, 180, and 270 days cured waste mix specimens was determined to study the influence of the curing period on strength enhancement. The shear strength parameters, flexural strength, flexural modulus, and fatigue life were determined for 28 days cured waste mix specimens. The laboratory flexural and fatigue tests were carried out at stress levels of 40, 60, and 80%. Power function gave good relationship for flexural strength with UCS ( R 2  = 0.91) and cohesion ( R 2  = 0.88). Furthermore, a reasonably good power relationship was established between flexural modulus and flexural strength ( R 2  = 0.80). Nondestructive structural evaluation using falling weight deflectometer (FWD) was performed on seven different flexible pavement test sections built with the aforementioned cemented waste mixes in base layers for impulse loads of 40, 55, and 70 kN. Stress-based fatigue performance models based on logarithmic as well as power function were used to predict the fatigue life of these cemented layers in the field based on the results obtained from initial FWD test. The fatigue life of the waste mixes was predicted in the range of 536,657 (70 kN) cycles to 218,623,854 (40 kN) cycles with an anticipated modulus reduction of 50% after fatigue failure.