Durability of Texture of Concrete Pavements

The durability of concrete pavement depends on its load bearing capacity and the performance properties of the surface texture during use. During wet weather conditions the textured surface should provide good tyre grip for safety reasons. In recent years increased focus has been placed on the noise emitted by road traffic in Germany. Traffic and weather result in wear which changes the surface texture and affect the performance properties of the road surface. The durability of texture is especially dependent on the shape of the texture and the quality of the surface mortar, i.e. on the composition and the properties of the near surface concrete. Optimisation of the surface durability is essentially the task of concrete technology. Over the past years, extensive research work financed by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing represented by the Federal Highway Research Institute has been carried out in order to improve texture durability. A time accelerated assessment procedure for laboratory testing under simulated practice conditions was developed in order to systematically test texture durability. The changes of texture were recorded three dimensionally with a laser surface scanner, evaluated and expressed by means of geometrical parameters. In various test series, the effects of the texture shape and concrete composition on texture durability have been studied.