Evaluating pavement structural benefits of lightweight cellular concrete

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Lightweight Cellular Concrete (LCC) offers potential structural, functional, construction, performance and costbenefits if used correctly in a pavement structure. As an alternative roadbed support over weak soils, LCC hasbeen installed as pavement base material to provide a more stable and stronger foundation. It has been placedin a few pavement sections across Canada and preliminary information shows it can improve pavementperformance.However there is a lack of engineering data which quantifies the performance of this layer within the pavementstructure. It is also unclear how it performs over time. This proposal is directed at quantifying performancethrough an integrated field and laboratory evaluation where the LCC is evaluated. There is a need toinvestigate and quantify the technical benefits, strength, stiffness, and vibrations of the LCC under cyclic trafficloading. In order to optimize the use of LCC as base material in pavement engineering, the Centre forPavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT) at the University of Waterloo and the CEMATRIX(Canada) Inc. are collaborating to investigate the pavement structural benefits with the use of CEMATRIXLCC.The following major tasks will be part of this research program: build a full scale instrumented pavementsection with the use of various LCCs as base layers, instrument and evaluate thermal performance duringwinter conditions, and instrument and quantify potential benefits of dampening vibrations. In addition, theresearch will develop a pavement structure number and potential pavement layer thickness savings that can beachieved by using LCC. A finite element model will be built to simulate and predict the bearing capacities ofpavements with various thickness of LCC at various locations (depth) to the base, and finally guidelines forLCC pavement and provide typical pavement designs with LCC for the usage in Canada. The designs willaccount for varying traffic loading and environmental conditions.