• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.37-46
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• 2017

PURPOSES : A composite pavement utilizes both an asphalt surface and a concrete base. Typically, a concrete base layer provides structural capacity, while an asphalt surface layer provides smoothness and riding quality. This pavement type can be used in conjunction with rollercompacted concrete (RCC) pavement as a base layer due to its fast construction, economic efficiency, and structural performance. However, the service life and functionality of composite pavement may be reduced due to interfacial bond failure. Therefore, adequate interfacial bonding between the asphalt surface and the concrete base is essential to achieving monolithic behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate the bond characteristics at the interface between asphalt (HMA; hot-mixed asphalt) and the RCC base. METHODS : This study was performed to determine the optimal type and application rate of tack coat material for RCC-base composite pavement. In addition, the core size effect, temperature condition, and bonding failure shape were analyzed to investigate the bonding characteristics at the interface between the RCC base and HMA surface. To evaluate the bond strength, a pull-off test was performed using different diameters of specimens such as 50 mm and 100 mm. Tack coat materials such as RSC-4 and BD-Coat were applied in amounts of 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9, and $1.1l/m^2$ to determine the optimal application rate. In order to evaluate the bond strength characteristics with temperature changes, a pull-off test was carried out at -15, 0, 20, and $40^{\circ}C$. In addition, the bond failure shapes were analyzed using an image analysis program after the pull-off tests were completed. RESULTS : The test results indicated that the optimal application rate of RSC-4 and BD-Coat were $0.8l/m^2$, $0.9l/m^2$, respectively. The core size effect was determined to be negligible because the bond strengths were similar in specimens with diameters of 50 mm and 100 mm. The bond strengths of RSC-4 and BD-Coat were found to decrease significantly when the temperature increased. As a result of the bonding failure shape in low-temperature conditions such as -15, 0, and $20^{\circ}C$, it was found that most of the debonding occurred at the interface between the tack coat and RCC surface. On the other hand, the interface between the HMA and tack coat was weaker than that between the tack coat and RCC at a high temperature of $40^{\circ}C$. CONCLUSIONS : This study suggested an optimal application rate of tack coat materials to apply to RCC-base composite pavement. The bond strengths at high temperatures were significantly lower than the required bond (tensile) strength of 0.4 MPa. It was known that the temperature was a critical factor affecting the bond strength at the interface of the RCC-base composite pavement.