Literature Review
Cavey et al. 1995 conducted a combined field and laboratory
study to examine the suitability of low-cost materials from recycled
concrete aggregate stabilized with portland cement. Split
tensile, flexural strength, and toughness tests were conducted.
Significant enhancements in properties were observed due to stabilization.
Another study by NCHRP 1992 highlighted the importance
of flexural strength in designing a pavement structure
with stabilized aggregate base. Flexural strength, tensile strength,
and compressive strength of stabilized aggregate bases were
examined.
According to Ioannides and Peng 2004, many state DOTs
and other transportation agencies are actively pursuing
mechanistic-based techniques that are expected to improve the
design of pavements. Three issues are considered important in
this respect: 1 failure models; 2 material characterization procedure;
and 3 new techniques to account for the stochastic nature
of pavement problems. Ioannides and Peng 2004 addressed
some of these issues in their work, where a fracture mechanicsbased
approach was used to predict the structural behavior of
pavements. In their study, the Hillerborg’s fictitious crack model
was used to simulate the crack growth in concrete slabs. A general
purpose finite element software ABAQUS was utilized to examine
the fracture behavior of these slabs.