Characterization and Modeling of Tensile Strength of High-Limestone Filler Concretes for Pavement

The objectives of the work described in this paper are twofold. First, the reuse of high-limestone filler crushed sand in concrete formulated without the use of superplasticizer and to be used for pavement construction is investigated. Then, concrete’s splitting tensile strength is modeled using a new proposed approach. The proportioning study for three types of concrete mixes was conducted based on the compressible packing model (CPM). The results of mechanical tests, primarily compressive and indirect tensile strengths, confirm the possibility of using high-filler content sand as a main component of portland cement concrete (PCC) for the construction of rigid pavements. To model the splitting-tensile strength, and in contrast to existing models which relate this property to the compressive strength, the proposed approach directly relates it to the cementitious matrix strength, to the concrete component proportions, to the cement paste maximum thickness, and to some aggregate parameters. The proposed tensile strength prediction model seems appropriate because it produced relatively low average error when compared with the experimental results.