Fly Ash-Fibre Reinforced Concrete (FAFC) Pavement-An Alternative to RCC/PCC Pavement

Abstract

Techno–economic superiority of the cement concrete road is now well established. A considerable R and D effort has gone into several aspects of concrete pavements or roads and runways. This is particularly so in the areas of strengthening and repair, design and evaluation, improvement of concrete as a paving material by incorporation of innovative & cost effective material and techniques used for road construction in the country.  Nowadays a major use of cementetious materials such as fly ash,  silica fumes,  slag,  recycled aggregates in concrete resulted in significant decrease in the use of valuable natural resources and lowering of fuel consumption through reduced transport and production processes as well as to reduce co₂ emissions. These alternative materials not only benefit the environment but also add value to, in the form of enhancement of performance characteristics by judicious selection, proportioning and use. However, in the context of International practice the Indian projects have not been cost effective. The pavement thickness is high. Concrete mix design practices are obsolete, leading to wasteful consumption of cement. Use of cement fly ash fiber reinforced concrete in place of plain cement concrete will, not only enable substantial savings in the consumption of cement, but also provide an economic and useful avenue for disposal of fly ash, which is now a recognized national problem, along with improved performance characteristics in terms of durability and low maintenance requirement It has been hereby suggested that by adopting proper mix proportioning methods of available methods, for the same design strength more economical mixes can be produced with cement-fly ash-fiber concrete as compared to plain cement concrete.

Keywords: fly ash, fibre, mix proportioning, innovative material, cement-flyash-fibre