Durable pavement with ECC

In this paper, we introduce and demonstrate this concept via experimental study of the fatigue performance of ECC beam and FEM analysis of pavement structures. The ECC specimens totally eliminate the single fracture mode in concrete by developing extensive micro-cracks under flexural fatigue loading, in addition to a much enhanced modulus of rupture compared to controlled concrete specimen. Based on FEM analysis of the ECC pavement and fatigue performance of the ECC beam, a simplified design chart for ECC pavement is presented to facilitate the implementation of the proposed technology.