A review on suitability of roller-compacted concrete for constructing high traffic resisting pavements

Roller compacted concrete (RCC) is a zero-slump concrete mixture of water, cement, and aggregate (fine and coarse fraction) compacted by vibratory rollers. Initially, it is used for low traffic concrete pavements such as parking lots, yards, storage areas, secondary roads, and industrial manufacturing facilities as it does not possess good flexural strength, which also degrades its fatigue behaviour. Even the durability of the concrete is low because of a high void content arising on account of lesser paste content for a given aggregate surface area. This paper aims to review the suitability of RCC as a high traffic pavement. Fiber inclusion may decrease the strength of a RCC because of an increased demand of water required for compaction efficiency. The primary objective of this work is to review the constituents of the RCC mixture concerning their strength, durability, and effect of curing. Secondly, the fatigue life has also been reviewed with the effect of fiber inclusion, and the case studies of RCC are also highlighted. Studies prove that roller compacted concretes with more than 12% of cement content achieve desired strength properties (flexural strength > 40MPa) for high traffic pavements. The substitution of cement with 15–30% fly ash increases both the strength and durability properties of the RCC mixes. Also, the inclusion of pozzolanic materials along with 0.5–1.5% fibers (preferably polypropylene fibers) by volume maintains the water demand for the required compaction efficiency and enhances the flexural strength, fatigue strength, durability, and load transfer capacity of RCC pavements. Drying shrinkage, abrasion resistance, and fatigue resistance of upto15% fly ash concrete has been found to be effective enough which limits the cement substitution with fly ash. Case studies prove that vibratory compaction is not much suitable for on-field compaction of RCC having thicknesses of 9”–12” as early cracks could be observed in those pavements. Recently developed superpave gyratory compaction is best compaction technique so far in the laboratory conditions. Based on the review, it is concluded that it is very essential to have a pozzolan admixed fiber-reinforced RCC with a requisite amount of binder material for an easy, safe, and efficient construction of high traffic pavements.