Evaluating pavement structural benefits of lightweight cellular concrete

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