Precast Electrified Roadway Pavement Systems using Engineered Cementitious Composites

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) remains low mainly because of its battery related problems, which include high cost, range limitation and weight. Electrified roadways, which allow EVs to charge while they are in operation (motion or stationary) by using Inductive Power Transfer, is a very innovative technology to overcome all of battery related issues. Implementing these electrified roadways into pavement management systems needs a cost effective and applicable pavement system. Precast concrete pavement systems (PCPs) are suitable pavement systems to fulfil electrified roadway requirements. However, due to their nature of construction, PCPs typically need two layers of steel reinforcement, which can influence the electromagnetic field as well as arrangements of electrical components. These two factors affect the overall performance of wireless energy transfer. Engineered Cementious Composite (ECC), which has tensile strain hardening behaviour similar to ductile metal, has the potential to be a good material for precast electrified roadway pavement. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to investigate whether ECC is a suitable material for precast electrified roadway pavement in terms of handling during the construction phase and pavement structural performance using finite element models (FEMs). The research results indicate that durable ECC can not only help precast electrified roadway pavement to withstand critical loadings during construction but also greatly strengthen the pavement service life.