A comparative study on structural design of plain and roller-compacted concrete for heavy-duty pavements

Industrial applications have historically been the major market sectors for Roller-Compacted Concrete (RCC) pavement due to its structural capabilities for heavy loads, competitive cost, and low maintenance requirements. Due to the widespread perception that RCC behaves similarly to conventional concrete, sufficient efforts have not yet been made to enhance its structural design. Therefore, despite the development of appropriate analysis methods and experimental technology, current RCC structural-design methods remain conservative. First, heavy-duty pavement design methodologies are examined in terms of load assessments, pavement analysis methods, and transfer functions, following which an effort is made to compare well-known current design manuals for static loading (container stacking) and dynamic loading cases (reach stacker traffics) for plain concrete and RCCs. This comprehensive review will thus not only help researchers to better characterise existing pavement design approaches and possible limits but will also lead to the development of a more mechanically-based RCC pavement design guide.